
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

pyrigkt No. 



Chap....... Copyright No 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SELECTED SOUVENIR 

SERMONS 

DELIVERED IN 

PEOPLE'S TEMPLE, BOSTON, MASS. 

BY 

/ 

Rev. James Boyd Brady, Ph.D., D.D. 

(AUTHOR OF 44 THE SAENGERFEST SERMONS/' 
44 MISSIONARY DYNAMICS/' ETC) 



And Furnished for Publication as a Parting Memento by Request 

of the People. 



BOSTON: 
B. J. STETSON & CO., PRINTERS. 
1899. 



38316 

Copyright 1899, 
By James Boyd Brady. 




PPEPACE. 



THIS volume contains a fair sample of the one thousand sermons delivered to 
over one million five hundred thousand hearers, during a pastorate of five 
years and six months in People's Temple, Boston, Mass., in which time over 
3,500 persons professed conversion around the Temple altars. 

They have been published at the kind solicitation of many friends, who from time 
to time expressed a desire to have something to read as a memento after the time 
limit of Methodism had rolled the preacher on to other fields. 

It is hoped they will help to keep the memory green of not only these, but of the 
other discourses on fundamental facts and practical forces, that especially in our times 
are contributing so rapidly to expansive Evangelicity. 

Owing to the pressure of other pastoral duties it has been impossible to publish at 
present the seven series of sermons so frequently asked for on : I. " The Great 
Eeligions of the World." II. " The Nations in Divine Transition." III. "Christianity 
Triumphant." IV. " The Immortal Interviews of Jesus." V. " The Manifest Mission 
of America." VI. " The Relation of Religion to the Welfare of the Person, the Home, 
the Church and the State." VII. " Social Statics and How to Reach the Classes and 
the Masses." With others of kindred nature that we trust will remain engraven 
on the " red leaved volume of the human heart " after the speaker's tongue is 
mute in the silence of the grave, and his soul has passed on to give account of how he 
has used his momentous opportunities. 

Possibly it may be permitted him from some other part of the field to publish a 
presentation in more scientific and related form, some or all of these living themes to 
which so many so appreciatively have listened in the Peoples' Temple and expressed 
desires for their form in print. If so, his Boston friends will doubtless hear of it. If 
not, as in all other matters, so in this, " the will of the Lord be done." 

His transfer from the Temple which he so much loves and for which he has so 
labored, reminds him that in the nature of things there can be but a few more such 
changes before that great and final change, coming continuously and irresistibly, over- 
takes us all. 

Hoping that this volume may at least in some degree help its readers to believe, love 
and live in such manner, as shall make their last change the most illustrious, he 
remains, 

Yours most faithfully, 

JAMES BOYD BRADY. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

The Gospel of God . . . . . . . . . 4 

Christ the Wonderful ........... 16 

Divine Forgiveness ............ 2-S 

The Money Question ........... 40 

The Bacchante . . . ... . . . . . .52 

Monday Bargain Buyers . . . . . . ... .64 

The Headship of the Christ . . . . ... . 76 

Christmas ............. -S.S 

Human Time . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 

Missionary Sermon . . . . . . . . ... Ill' 

The Liberal Christian ........... 136 

Paul Beginning His Course . . . . . . . . . 148 

Paul Continuing His Course ..... 156 

Paul Finishing His Course .......... 164 

Sacred Singing . . . . . . . . . . 17/2 

Power . . . . . . . . . . . .184 

The Proxy Cross ............ 196 

Samson .............. 208 

President McKinley and Prosperity . . . . . . . 220 

Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 

Lessons from the Bad Fight for the Good Fight ..... 244 

New Wine foe New Bottles . . . . . . . . . 256 

Haste 268 

The Fatherly Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . 280 

Wealth Against Commonwealth ......... 292 

Miseries of Wealth Against Commonwealth ...... 304 

Analogies Between Wheel and Spiritual Life . . . . . -Sir* 

Understanding the Scriptures . . . . . . . . . 328 

Mohammedanism and Christianity ......... 34<> 

Perseverance . . . . . . ... . . 352 

Preserving the Union . . . . . . . . . . . 364 

Anti-Christ • . . . • . * . . .'>72 



Moses .... 

The Symbols 

Samuel, the Seer 

David and Solomon 

The Prophets of God 

The Old Testament 

The Theologians 

Sparks from Other Sermons 



CONTENTS. 



THE GOSPEL OF GOD. 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting - life." John III, 1(5. 



% /OU measure the value of love by the 
I value of the lover. If a child love 
■ you, you enjoy it as the love of inno- 
cence. 

If a man love you, you regard its value 
in the light of his worth. If we let wisdom 
obtain, there is a ratio in this to us, as true 
as that in mathematical numbers. 

If a great, good man love you, you appre- 
ciate it in proportion to his greatness and 
goodness. You measure the value of the 
love by the character of the lover. If the 
lover is great, his love is of great worth. 
If the lover is little, his love is of little 
worth. If the lover is great, his gift will be 
proportionately great, and if he is good, 
his gift will be proportionately good. 

Apply this law to the text and follow 
where it leads. The text supplies us with : 

I. The Lover. "God so loved the 
world." 

II. The Gift, " That He gave His only 
begotten Son." 

III. The Condition of acceptance and 
result. " That whosoever believeth on Him 
should not perish but have everlasting life." 

I. The Lover. " God." If He were a 
malevolent being, He would have shown it 
in Creation. He would have made us so 
that all we see would produce a pang, and 
all we smell a pain, and all we hear a dis- 
cord, and all we taste a bitterness, and all we 
touch a sting. But He has made us so that 
if we obey Him, the bodily senses bring 
many pleasures; pleasures of sight, smell, 
sound, food and feeling; pleasures in sky, 
sea, mountain, the earth and river; pleasures 
in country, town, and city ; pleasures in 



planning, plodding, working; pleasures 
abounding ; pleasures in the abundant joys 
of superb physical life. And being a great 
giver, God extends His raptures to the mind 
as well as body. The rapture of reason, of 
perception, of abstraction, of understand- 
ing, of thought, of meditation, of receiving, 
and offering knowledge; but being the 
greatest Lover, He confines not his blessings 
to the body and the mind. In fact the 
pleasures He gives the senses and the intel- 
lect are but preparations for the grander 
ecstacies he gives the spirit, The spiritual 
in us, is the chief object of His care. He 
takes care of the physical and mental fabric 
for the sake of the spiritual substance, 
just as you take care of the framework of 
a piano for the sake of the music. The 
whole structure of nature exists for the sake 
of the spirit within us. You look upon 
this great organ, mastered by Prof . Carter, 
you say it looks well, but you do not know r 
its value till you hear it sing. Then your 
soul takes wing and soars with its sounds 
to heaven ; that is what the organ is for. 
It is for the sake of the melodic measures 
that lift us upward. We love the organ 
for the sake of the symphonies. God loves 
the body for the sake of the soul. This 
soul in us evokes His most passionate love. 
Now note what this means ; it means that 
He puts His infinite power, wisdom, 
knowledge, and skill into His love. It 
means that He puts all His moral grandeur 
into His love. His mercy, long suffering, 
compassion, justice, interblent with ever- 
lasting holiness dominated by eternal pity. 
You measure the love of a mammal and 



4 



THE GOSPEL OF GOD. 



a man by the strength of then- nature. I 
measure the love of God by the magnifi- 
cence, omnipotence, and eternity of His 
nature. You cannot obtain adequate idea 
of the greatness of God's love, but by tak- 
ing into account the greatness of God's per- 
son, for the love is equal to the Lover. You 
cannot form a conception of the great- 
ness of gravity by simply watching a stone 
fall to the ground. You have to go with 
the scientists up and out through the sun- 
systems till you come to the ulterior system 
on the astronomic rim where vast iUcyone 
blazes with the splendors of ten thousand 
suns. You have to think of these myriads 
of ponderous worlds, study their number, 
size, velocity, precision of movement and 
abyssmal deeps before you can secure a 
view of the greatness of gravitation. And 
so, in seeking a vision of the Almighty 
love, you must secure a vision of the Al- 
mighty Lover, His all-powerf ulness, all-see- 
ingness, all-enduringness, all-pervasiveness, 
all-creativeness, and all-sustainingness. And 
then remember that His love to you is 
greater than any of these and all of these, 
for that love dominates them, jjervades them 
guides them in their mighty and merciful 
ministrations toward you. The house ex- 
ists for the children not the children for the 
house ; the universe is created for God's peo- 
ple, not his people for the universe ; God's 
love to you is greater than the universe, it 
is equal to Himself; it involves in itself all 
His august, natural, moral and spiritual qual- 
ities. His whole nature moves towards 
you under the propulsive power of His 
greatest power. That power is His concen- 
tered, focused, self flooding your life with 
His love. That love is infinite in quan- 
tity, quality and duration ; that love being 
infinite, nothing but an infinite gift could 



express it, the love was infinite; the loved 
were infinitely loved, therefore the gift of 
that love must be infinite. 

II. This leads us to look at the infinite 
gift of the infinite Lover. " God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten 
and well beloved Son.' 1 This Son is mys- 
teriously equal with God ; strangely one 
with Him ; the only begotten of Himself ; 
the well beloved by Himself ; the fathom- 
less deeps of this fathomless Son form the 
only possible measure of God's love to you. 

He has given the gift not only as the 
measure of His love, but also as the meas- 
ure of His applied affection . His is not a 
far-off, impracticable, latent love ; it is a 
close-up, practicable, active love. It is the 
best and strongest, most operant love ; it 
gave the best and grandest gift. You can 
measure the love by the gift, and the gift 
by the love. The love had all things for 
you in intention. The gift has all things 
for you in dispensation. Into the gift, the 
giver has put all things you need, the gift 
is precisely suitable to your necessities. 

You needed to know that this was not a 
darksome, tragic life without a purpose, and 
without a goal. You needed to know that 
you were not the children of mere fatality, 
driven by sheer necessity through a hope- 
less gulf of sorrow, to a hopeless grave of 
gloom. You needed to know that some- 
where, somehow there was a great mind 
thinking of you, and a great heart throb- 
bing for you, and a great eye watching o'er 
you, and great hand stretched out toward 
you in your sadness and your woe. You 
needed to know that in that hand there was 
tenderness, pity, power, and providence. 
That knowledge has been brought to you 
by the gift, by the divine Man, who tore 
away the veil from the shrouded Creator's 



THE GOSPEL OF GOD. 



5 



heart, and taught the world to call Him 
Father. Many and murky had been the 
gropings of men ; they felt the strange fore- 
tokenings of better things. Strong and 
long were the struggles of the race toward 
a solution of the enigmas of life. Men of 
all times and climes were mutely asking, 
what am I ? whence am I ? why am I ? and 
whither am I bound? but there came no 
satisfactory answer from prophet, imiloso- 
pher, statesman nor poet, till in the serene 
grandeur of His transcendent life, Jesus of 
Nazareth appeared amid the hills of Pales- 
tine, teaching mankind that they were chil- 
dren of a perfect Father, and that that 
Father had sent him to save them from 
their sins and make them perfect too. Here 
was a mighty mission ; here was an august 
commissioner who demonstrated the divin- 
ity of His claims by the divinity of His do- 
ings. The tearful eyes of weeping men and 
agonizing women turned to Him for help 
and never turned in vain. The God was in 
the gift ; the gift was the God. And so as 
onward marched that strange, preoccupied, 
solitary man who cared nothing for money, 
wealth, station, fame or aught the world 
held dear, who declared He had come to 
found a kingdom but it was to be unworldly. 
The multitudes felt the first great pulse of 
love power that had ever beat out from the 
pitying throne. Mercy was seen every- 
where meeting misery. Lepers were healed, 
blind restored, lame leaped, deaf heard, 
dumb spoke, devils tied, dead revived. The 
touch of a mighty love -life was felt in this 
lazaretto of a world. The love of God had 
sent a gift equal to itself. There is such 
meetness and completeness of supply for all 
your great needs in this great gift, that it 
is cheering to look at these supplies. 

We are creatures of the greatest want ; no 
beings so helpless by nature as are we ; we 
are "born to evil as the sparks fly upward. 1 ' 
Sin has made fearful havoc of us all ; 
so bad is human nature that it is stricken 
through from head to foot with the paraliz- 
ing power of evil. The vices reign ; the vir- 
tues die ; the world has sinned ; the world 
is lost. The lamentations of seers and 
sages came wailing down the ages. Man 



is absolutely and utterly ruined ; he cannot 
deliver himself. Law, philosophy, wealth, 
civilization, education, plunge man into 
deeper and more refined vices. The insane 
root of man's malady cannot be torn out of 
man's heart by exterior material or intel- 
lectual processes. The heart itself is the 
seat of evil; the heart is "deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked." "Out of 
the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, 
fornications," and every abomination. It 
is the gall fountain, the source of all 
iniquity. The first necessity to restore us 
to rectitude is the disclosure of a righteous 
Father. The second is to reveal our un- 
righteous hearts. Both of these Jesus has 
done ; He has shown our life to be so cor- 
rupt that we need a complete re-birth. " Ye 
must be born again." Born out of the rude 
crudities of sinful and fleshly lusts which 
"war against the soul." Born into the 
strong, inspiring refinements of spiritual life; 
born into a new atmosphere with a new 
nature that will flourish in " love, joy, 
peace, gentleness, goodness, meekness, tem- 
perance, faith, charity." The power to 
bring about such real result is in the gift. 
Come up closer and let us more minutely 
examine what is in this most wonderful 
bestowment. 

First of all there is pardon in it. This 
we all sorely need; who of us has not 
offended? which of you is without sin ? 
Guilty is the verdict of every honest con- 
science. We have been repudiators, re- 
jecters, neglecters, open rebels or sly and 
secret traitors against the kingdom and the 
King. The most fleckless of you cannot 
deny the charge. Had we all our deserts, 
we long ago should have been lost, guilty 
of infinite offense, because committed 
against an infinite God. 

But to all of us who will confess and for- 
sake our sins, the divine Son offers a divine 
pardon. He has become your "go-be- 
tween," your " at-one-ment," your recon- 
ciling conciliator and substitutionary advo- 
cate. He, in a word has taken your place; 
He has died for your sin ; He has pur- 
chased pardon by His sufferings. Justice 
is satisfied with thee, when on thee it looks 



6 



THE GOSPEL OF GOD. 



through Him. The thing for thee to do is 
to place Him between thee and justice, so 
that justice cannot see thee without first 
seeing Him. Thus " a man shall be a hid- 
ing place from the wind and a covert from 
the tempest, as the shadow of a great rock 
in a weary land." 

Hid in Him the hurricane of justice 
passes by. He buries your sins where jus- 
tice cannot find them. He removes them 
as far from you, as the East is from the 
West. They may be dark, bloody, un- 
speakable, but He has come to save from 
sin. He describes no particular kind of 
sinner or of sin. The word " whosoever " 
covers every case. Is there here a poor, 
polluted, anxious heart? Is there one 
here in all this multitude with a burdened, 
bleeding, broken soul? Broken, wounded, 
bleeding, because of the memories of un- 
forgi ven sin. Listen! look!! live!!! The 
sin-forgiving Saviour is here. Appeal to 
Him for pardon, apply to Him for forgive- 
ness, and you shall leave this temple a 
pardoned candidate for purity. 

Second, because your loving Father has 
put not only the power of pardon into His 
infinite gift, but also the power of purity. 
You naturally say, what is the use of me 
seeking pardon, I shall be just as badly off 
tomorrow. I know I cannot contest suc- 
cessfully the evils of my habits and my 
heart. I feel sure they will conquer me 
and lay me low again their conquered vic- 
tim. Quite true my brother in your poor, 
weak, puny strength, you cannot stand. 
Satan, sense and sin are too strong for 
thee ; thou wilt surely be overcome by the 
next trial, if thou presumest to stand and 
fight evil in thine own strength. But thou 
dost not need to appear without help, there 
is help for thee that cannot fail. Help that 
is so present, potent, and prevailing that if 
all the demons of the pit and all the furies 
of the world should conspire to doom thee, 
not all their aggregated might could harm 
thee. " What shall harm you if you are 
followers of that which is good?" "If 
God be for you, who can be against you?" 
We can confidently fling out the triumph- 
ant challenge to the universe ; "who shall 



separate us from the love of Christ ? Shall 
tribulation, or distress, or persecution or 
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" 
Nay; in all these things you are (conquerors) 
and more than conquerors through Him 
who loves you. 

The old traitor is taken out of the heart, 
the disposition to sin is stricken down, the 
soul has experienced renovation, regenera- 
tion, the new birth. The home of your 
heart is preoccupied now by the powers of 
purity. The angels of light dwell within 
you. Christ is Head Centre of the Circle. 
Love divine, all love excelling, fills your 
being. God's presence makes your heart a 
paradise, Satan comes and finds it all pre- 
occupied, no room for him or his. Look- 
ing through the windows of your soul, he 
glides stealthily away. Had it been empty 
and for him "swept and garnished," he 
would have entered ; he would have 
brought all his black brood with him ; he 
would have had you in the toils that lead 
to eternal torments. But now appropria- 
tion of God's prepossessing, all occupying 
gift has saved you, does save you, shall 
save you. You may be besmirched by the 
tongue of slander, you may be carved by 
the knife of criticism, you may be struck by 
the sword of the liar, but as the abounding 
billows of yonder wounded sea close over 
every stroke that strikes them, so the 
abounding billows of righteousness in your 
soul bury in oblivion every weapon drawn 
against you. Thus the gift gives pardon of 
the past and powerful purity for the present. 

Third, nor does Jesus only change your 
relation to sin. He also changes your rela- 
tion to society. You were exiles, aliens, 
strangers, foreigners ; sin had expatriated 
you, Satan had usurped you, but now Jesus 
as (Jonathan to David) appears and brings 
you home. You are "no longer strangers 
and foreigners, but fellow- citizens of the 
saints and of the household of God." You 
are members of the Divine Family, you are 
heirs to all the promises and all the possess- 
ions. There is no promise in the Bible but 
you can claim. There is no possession on 
earth or sky, but you are heir apparent to. 
You are ado2)ted to the heirship. You are 



THE GOSPEL OF GOD. 



made " heirs of God and joint heirs with 
Christ. 1 There is no star that shines nor 
sun nor sytems nor El-Dorado of earth or 
heaven but in part belongs to you. For 
"all are yours since ye are Christ's and 
Christ is God's. " The connective chain is 
complete. The title deeds are stamped 
and sealed with covenant blood. The 
emancipation day is coming. The coro- 
nation time is at hand. 

■•Look ye saints the sight is glorious. 

See the man of sorrow now. 
From the tight He comes victorious. 

Crowns become the Victor's brow." 

Those crowns are the insignia of power over 
all nations, and all nature, and all worlds. 
For " all pow er is given unto him in heaven 
and in earth." That power is for you 
— you are born to it — you are 
adopted to it — you are intended for it. 
Hallelujah ! broken, bruised, poor, pure, 
brother, you may now be as poverty 
stricken as Lazarus to the eye of man, 
but to the eye of God you are richer 
than any Croesus, Rothschild or Vander- 
bilt that ever lived and died without the 
gift you have. Is it any winder Ave peo- 
ple in this Temple are so happy ? Is it any 
wonder w^e can scarce restrain our antici- 
pations ? Is it to be thought strange that 
w^e should shout Hallelujah, and Glory, and 
Praise to our good and gracious God? 
The wonder is my brethern, we don't break 
loose and sing and shout far more. See 
how men hurrah over a political candidate, 
oftentimes a poor pitiable, pelf-seeking sin- 
ner like themselves. Ah ! Brothers, shall 
not we rise to the superb majesty of our 
heirship and inheritance and echo and re- 
echo those swelling strains that represent 
the goodness of our God? 

For, mark, this is not all. God has not 
only given us the greatest gift and in the 
gift the greatest blessings of pardon, pur- 
ity and heirship, but in addition to all this 
through the gift of His blessed Son he sends 
the illumining, comforting, teaching, inspir- 
ing Holy Ghost. Jesus has gone to advo- 
cate our cause at the central throne of this 
vast universe. 



He is the advocate, who never lost a 
case. He is the advocate, who summons 
all the acquitting evidence of earth and 
heaven . He is the advocate, w T ho appears 
at the supreme court stabbed and cica- 
trized with weapons of assasination. He 
carries them to show how we are assailed. 
How dreadful is the fight ! How fierce 
the fray ! ! How merciless the slaughter ! ! I 
And, so lest we should be unforefended, He 
has sent down the all-powerful Holy Spirit. 
He came as " a rushing mighty wind " on 
day of Pentecost. He has kept coming 
through all generations to Christ's only 
own, ever since. He enlightens your mind, 
soothes your sorrows, lifts your hearts. He 
is w T ith you by night and by day — on street, 
in store, kitchen, cellar, garret — in com- 
fortable suite of rooms or little hall bed- 
room. Xo outward conditions confine 
him. Subtle, sweet, etherial, ever-present 
potent, and still he steals upon us and 
whispers those sweet messages of mercy 
and love we would be likely in a w r orld 
like this so soon to forget. The messages 
of Jesus, He brings to your memories 
afresh ; to your hearts anew. And so day 
by day, aye, moment by moment, this 
Holy One who inhabiteth Eternity, works 
in you and with you, to take you a little 
nearer home. To fit you a little better for 
that home, and to defend you against all 
bandits of hell, or pirates of earth, who 
would entice you away from going on to 
the mansions of glory. Ah ! men of mind, 
men of judgment, men of reason and of 
understanding, where can you find such 
magnificent and munificent proposals made 
to you, as in the Gospel of God? 

There are many other Gospels. There is 
the Gospel of the theatre, of the saloon, of 
the dance, of the gaming table, of trade 
and of commerce. There is the Gospel of 
science, art, literature, poetry, philosophy ; 
some of them are not altogether bad. 
They have a function to fulfill. But that 
function is ephemeral and loses its spell in 
the shadow of the grave, and its power in 
the searching light of the Judgment Da}'. 
But, Oh brethren, the Gospel of God 
brightens our way as the grave approaches. 



8 



THE GOSPEL OF GOB. 



It enables us to leap for joy at the coming 
of the Judgment Day, when each of us 
shall be called to account kk for the deeds 
done in the body, whether they be good 
or whether they be evil. " All worldly 
Gospels pale in the presence of such ac- 
counting. Those who trust them tremble 
and go down. Those who are misled by 
them are blighted with the scath of with- 
ering lightnings. Those, who are damned 
by them, will never forgive themselves their 
stupidity and stubborness in living for 
what ruins, when they had pressed upon 
them what saves. Oh ! ye men and women, 
who love no Gospel but what the world 
gives you, be alarmed, be afraid, tremble 
terribly for the woes that are coming upon 
you. The ever gnawing worm of an end- 
less remorse, that awful " womi that never 
dies " is the only inheritance you live for. 
the only portion you must have forever. 

Oh how I long and yearn to save you, but 
we cannot save each other. It is serious 
business and it has no proxies. Every 
soul must apply to God for its own rem- 
edy. Every serpent-bitten Israelite had to 
look for himself. Every sin -smitten sin- 
ner must do the same. Yes. but you say 
" it is all a great mystery to me. I have 
no tastes in that direction. I enjoy life as 
I am, and you people who parade religion 
are a kind of laughing stock to the com- 
munity. I think, I would rather go on 
with the decent, respectable crowd, be 
counted by them a good fellow, and be- 
sides, I have some habits and propensities 
to indulge, that would pain me to give up. 
Xo, I think, I will go on as I am. and risk 
it like other folks. " Then. Sir, if that is 
your final decision, hell will be your final 
portion, just as sure as you sit in that 
chair. Do you suppose God Almighty is 
going to be trifled with in that way ? Do 
you suppose you can prove a traitor to 
him all the days of your life here, and 
then have Him treat you as a loyal and 
faithful servant, there ? Xo Sir. you are 
wicked. " And the wicked shall be turned 
into hell. " That's God's way of doing 
business, and no man can reverse it. 

Xow I see you are squirming down there: 



you ought to wriggle and squirm more than 
you do. You have lived all these years a 
rebel. You have neglected and rejected 
the very best gift God ever gave. You 
have needed it. from the top of your head 
to the sole of your feet ; and yet, Sir, it 
is the only one gift you really do need. 
God in love has sent it to you. invited you 
to receive it, pressed you to accept it. And 
now after many rejections, your have be- 
come so hard, careless, indifferent and 
impudent that you think, and practically 
say, you think you know your business 
better than God. Xow I propose to 
tear every tatter of lilthy. self-woven 
righteousness from your soul. I proclaim 
to you, you are deceiving yourself. I de- 
clare to you, you are facing the wrong- 
way. The excuses you make are good 
for nothing. They will burn up as dry 
leaves before a flame in the day of trial. 
This world and all that's in it, cannot 
shield you. You cannot take a protecting 
dime with you through the grave. The 
baggage you are cumbering yourself with, 
will all be stopped there. 

III. A voice. Preacher stop ! Look 
at your text and you will And it says, 
" whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish." That covers me I believe. I 
believe the Bible, I believe there is a God, • 
who rules the world. I believe , that God 
sent Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus Christ 
came and died, and rose again. I am a 
believer ! Yes you are a believer: and so 
is the devil ! ! He believes all you do and 
as much mure, as his knowledge and ex- 
perience are greater. But his belief does 
not save him. The devil's faith is a his- 
torical, theoretical faith, and so is yours. 
Theoretic and historic faith can save no 
man. God in His benevolence has made 
Faith the condition of salvation, so that 
everybody should have equal chance. But 
that faith means far more than you put 
into it. You believe the Grand Pacific 
Railroad runs to California : but that does 
not take you there, you have to go to the 
depot and pay your fare, and take your 
ticket and get on the train, else you never 
go to California. And so you believe the 



THE GOSPEL OF GOD. 



9 



Lord Jesus Christ is the royal way to 
Heaven, but that will never take you to 
Heaven. Your faith must be practical. 
You must go to the depot, (the church) ; 
you must pa}' your fare, (repent of and 
give up your sins) ; you must take your 
ticket, (the Holy Ghost in your heart) ; 
you must get on the train, (join the 
Church); you must stay on the tram, (stay 
in the Church and grow in grace, knowl- 
edge and power). If you do that, I, as 
engineer of this Temple train, will let you 
hang me up on a gibbet in mid-air, before 
the eyes of all this universe, as a deceiver, 
if you don't get to Heaven. " For God 
so loved the world, that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
Him should not perish but have everlast- 
ing life. " 

Prayer Before Sermon. 

O thou greatest and best of beings, thou 
Father Almighty, we have met again to 
think of thee and worship thee. Thou 
hast been very good to us ; words are too 
feeble to utter the gratitude we feel for all 
thy goodness. Thou hast been good in 
granting us Christian parentage ; good in 
giving us Christain training, good in giving 
us thoughts capable of conceiving thee, 
hearts capable of loving thee, bodies cap- 
able of rendering thee and thine service. 
We thank thee for all the blessings of life ; 
we thank thee for the blessings that come 
to us daily from the sun and nightly from 
the stars ; we thank thee for the blessings 
that come to us from the fruitful earth and 
the abundant seas ; we thank thee for food 
and raiment, for faithful friends and peace- 
ful homes; we thank thee for a land of lib- 
erty in which to live ; we bless thee for the 
privileges of our civil life, for all the educat- 
ing centers, for all the instructing churches, 
for all the inspiring people ; we bless thee 
for ail the happy times we have in this tem- 
ple ; we praise thee for the joy of hallowed 
song, the power of uplifting prayer, the 
energy of pervading trust. But above all 
we adore thee for the unspeakable gift of 



thy best-beloved Son; we adore thee for 
the Holy Scriptures that speak of Him and 
for the Holy Spirit that reveals Him ; and 
we are anxious to be worthy of thy won- 
derful gift ; we acknowledge our utter un- 
worth. We in and of ourselves are erring 
and straying sinners. We cannot stay the 
tides of evil that are surging around us and 
within us seeking to sweep us down to doom 
and gloom. We cannot in our helplessness 
resist the floods of the incoming evil sea. 
Its waves of wickedness swell into billows 
and sweep over us. Like drowning men 
holding on to a rock, so we hold fast to 
thee. Thou art our sure anchorage, our 
rock, our refuge and our strength. 

Let nothing then, oh Father, unclasp our 
grasp of thee, nor undo thy hold of us. 
Thou hast held us in thy loving hand ever 
since we were re-born. Hold us, keep us 
till the end, enter our hearts and reign; 
cast out and keep out every evil. May no 
pride nor passion gain dominion over us, 
may no folly nor error lead us away from 
thee. But each day by each event build 
us up in manhood and womanhood. Man- 
hood like that of Jesus ; womanhood like 
that of Mary. We would not be satisfied 
with mean and meagre worth ; make us 
perfect, make and keep us pure and holy. 
Wherein we have sinned, forgive ; wherein 
we have been mistaken or misled, instruct, 
inspire and restore. If there are heavy 
hearts burdened and broken by the many 
memories of sin, heal these wounded ones 
by leading them to true repentance. If 
here are darkened minds beclouded by 
doubts, embarassed by problems they 
cannot solve, shine in upon such oh 
Father, by thy Holy Spirit and show 
them that He is the light of the mind 
as well as of the heart. If some are here 
who are passing through business troubles 
and feel they are helpless and cannot de- 
liver themselves, we pray thee to interpose 
pity, and spare, and rescue them out of all 
then fiery trials ; bring them forth pure and 
strong. If others are here who are endur- 
ing social or domestic sorrows, who feel 
man's inhumanity to man, makes them 
mourn, Blessed One appear to their temp- 



10 



THE GOSPEL OF GOD. 



est-tossed souls, whisper once again " peace 
be still," and again in them shall be a great 
calm . And so pass through this great con- 
gregation. Give each one a needed bless- 
ing, where there is gloom give glory, where 
there is war give peace, where there is sin 
give holiness, where there is sorrow give 

joy- 

And oh, Blessed Father, continue to 
bless our temple, bless all our members and 
all our congregation, bless them in their 
bodies, minds, hearts, homes and business ; 
bless them also in the class meetings and 
prayer meetings; bless them in the praise 
meetings and in the preaching services ; 
bless them in their private prayers and in 
their personal readings and searchings 
after truth, and bless them so that thou 
shalt turn their very trials into triumphs, 
their adversities into prosperities, their de- 
feats into victories. Oh blessed Lord God, 
our very hearts adore thy name because 
thou hast in all our history, proved the 
truth of thy great promise that thou wouldst 
make all things work together for good to 
them that love thee. We do love and we 
do know by blest experience that the dark- 
est and most stormy night, thou canst turn 
into most charming day. Many are the 
joys that come into our life from this loving 
service of thee. Mighty are the swelling 
impulses that come through faith and 
prayer from thee ; they lift us up, they 
carry us on, they strangely impel us for- 
ward from strength to strength. Do thou 
grant to all the same blessings which we 
feel. Bless our city, guide its government 
and its governors, its institutions of learn- 
ing, of business, and of religion ; bless our 
commonwealth, let justice, honesty, truth 
and liberty prevail. Let every state be a 
spiritual star and all the states flame with 
the moral grandeur of a spiritual sun ; let 
the splendors of that sun break forth o'er 
all the earth. Bless all the other nations, 
have pity on Armenia and Cuba ; spare 
needless slaughter and sheath useless 
swords. Bless the continents with all 
their countries, and stay not in thy course, 



oh King, until thou shalt receive the earth 
redeemed from every iniquity, and graced 
with every virtue and beauty. And now, 
our Father, to this end, bless us here in the 
reading, and preaching, and hearing of thy 
Word. Let the living spirit apply the liv- 
ing truth, and send each of us to our homes 
rescued from our sins, and enjoying thy 
salvation, and the praise shall be to Father, 
Son and Spirit. 

Amen. 

Prayer After Sermon. 



We do give thee our hearts deepest love, 
oh Lord, in return for thy hearts deepest 
love to us. It is strange thou shouldst so 
love us as to give the dearest of thy heart 
to save us. We embrace Him, we believe 
Him, we trust Him, we serve Him, aud He 
delivers us. Again we feel the responsi- 
bility of preaching thy word. Again we 
pray thee to bless it to those who here 
have heard it. Bless them with a sense of 
thy love, such as shall keep and comfort 
them during another week. May they not 
only have heard of thy love, may they re- 
ceive it, assimilate it, and accept the most 
marvellous privileges it presents ; pardon, 
purity, heaven. We lift this whole people 
now toward thee in prayer, and ask thee 
to bless them with the blessings they now 
need. They are going out into the world 
for another week of work, of trial, temp- 
tation and care. 

When they are sore at heart and weary 
in mind, and tired in body, oh Lord, may 
they look up to thee and remember that 
thou dost supremely and sincerely love 
them. And may their tribulations lead 
them to lift their hearts to thee for help, 
and may they learn to cast their burdens 
upon thee, and with gladsome hearts and 
sunny souls go singing through this suffer- 
ing world, the love of God to suffering 
man ; and to thee the Father, Son and 
Spirit shall be the praise. 

Amen. 



Press of Lounsbery, Nichols & Worth, 50 Pearl St., Boston. 



Christ The Wonderful. 



"And His name shall be called Wonderful." Isaiah, IX: 6. 



THERE have been wonderful names 
in war — Alexander, Hannibal, Napo- 
leon. 

There have been wonderful names 
in poetiw — Homer, Virgil, Dante. 

There have been wonderful names in 
philosophy — Plato, Socrates, Solomon. 

But of all beings who deserve the name 
wonderful, none equals Jesus. 

I. He was wonderful before He ap- 
peared on earth. He was the Ancient and 
Honorable of eternity. Before God com- 
manded chaotic matter to marry, before the 
great solar systems were wedded and flung 
into abysmal spaces, before the deeps of 
limitless expanse were illumined by count- 
less stars, the eternal Son of God mysteri- 
ously occupied his Father's bosom. Equal 
with Him in power and splendor, the dar- 
ling of His heart, the companion of His 
eternity. He was the word, and " in the 
beginning was the word, and the word was 
with God, and the word was God." 

Scientists speculate about the ancient 
grandeur of the universe, they revel in its 
antiquity. Aristocrats glory in tracing 
the roots of their genealogy back to some 
ancient house. They delight to speak of 
the honors of their ancestral pedigree ; but 
which of them, oh patient Child of God, 
can point to an ancestry like thine. Thy 
ancestry dates back beyond all worlds, thy 
family was in the beginning, and as the 
beginning never began, thy progenitors 
are eternal. Therefore, thou too, shall be 
everlasting. Who are the ancient hon- 
orables of Xew England compared with 
thee ? What are the ancient nobilities of 
old England contrasted with thee? They 
trace their ancestral grandeur back a few 
hundred years. Thou datest thine far into 
the eternities. 

Lift up head, heart, and voice, ye sons 
and daughters of the Lord for your ances- 
tral bearings, your coats of arms, your es- 
cutcheons of holiness are bestudded with 



promissory stars that came floating from 
the Father long before men began to be- 
deck themselves witli regal names and 
royal crowns. Rejoice then sons of God, 
rejoice, and ye his daughters, sing for God. 

IT. Christ is wonderful for His fore- 
runners. We have seen in the far-off 
East the heralds fly before the coming of the 
Prince. Athletic of form, fleet of foot, 
deep of chest, and strong of voice, they 
bound along before the carriage of Sultan, 
King or Queen, crying, clear the way. 
But before what king ever ran such pres- 
ageful pomp and power as before your 
King. 

The smoking furnace and the burning 
lamp of Abraham that passed between his 
sacrificial pieces, adumbrated Him. The 
obedience of Isaac bound upon the sacri- 
ficial pile, typified Him. The majesty of 
Joseph mounting the mediatorial throne, 
forecast Him. The ministry of Moses in 
rescuing Israel foreshadowed Him. The 
conquest of Canaan by Israel foresighted 
Him. The deliverance and expansion of 
the chosen people by David was of Him a 
striking premonstration. The tabernacle 
in its journey in gs and the temple in its 
sanguinary ceremonies were freighted with 
auguries portending His approach. 

Xor was the coming of the Christ left to 
premonitory omens by prefiguring poten- 
tates and priests. The prophets too, with 
clear eye and clarion voice came rushing 
to the mounts of vision . 

The seer, standing on his watch tower, saw 
Him " Coming up from Edom with dyed 
garments from Bozrah, glorious in His ap- 
parel, traveling in the greatness of His 
strength, speaking in righteousness and 
mighty to save." 

This divine vaticinator descried Him 
kv as wounded for our transgressions, bruised 
for our iniquities," as having the chastise- 
ment of our peace laid on Him, and as 
healing us with his wounds. 



16 



CHRIST THE WOXJDERFUZ. 



The Messianic psalms, the prophecies of 
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel are 
far more than mere sibylline oracles, more 
than pregnant omens, more than necro- 
mantic theurgy, more than clairvoyant sorti- 
lege, or prying anticipation. They are 
predictive proclamations, graphic foretel- 
lings, absolute and accurate prophecies, 
which none but souls inspired by God 
could utter. So vivid, so realistic, are 
these prophetic description, that they 
could scarcely have been more descriptive 
if Messiah had stood before the physical 
view. There is no other character in his- 
tory of whom such prophecies were ever 
uttered. The Christ stands alone in the 
sublime picturings of the real prophets. 
The time He should come was portrayed 
by Daniel in his kt time times and a half." 

The place where He would appear was 
foretold by Micah in his "Bethlehem Judah." 
The wonderful way He should live was fore- 
told by Isaiah, and the victorious way he 
should die proclaimed by David, while the 
world wide, time long and eternally magni- 
ficent results of His life are touched on by 
nearly all the prophets. Child of God, in 
this there are confirmation and comfort for 
thee. Child of Evil, in this there are dis- 
suasions and warnings for thee. Cheer 
thee, Son of Salvation.' Repent! repent! ! 
repent ! ! ! oh child of Sin ! ! ! ! 

III. His birth was also wonderful; there 
have been many marvelous births, but 
none so marvelous as this. It was out of 
nature's course. It was miraculous and 
divine, He was conceived of the Holy Ghost 
and of a virgin born. The universe itself 
was stirred by the advent. The astonished 
stars deputized one of their number to 
attend the strange' nativity. The three 
Gentile sages came bringing their symbolic 
gifts. The angelic hosts startled the as- 
tounded sky by singing, " Glory to God in 
the highest, peace on earth, good will to 
meii." The amazed shepherds marched to 
the spot where the young child lay, while 
Herod himself was stricken through with 
awe as if his doom had come. Thus the 
universe of matter, the realm of thought, 
the region of angels, the ranks of religion, 



and spheres of politics were all astonished 
by such surprising epiphany. What joy, 
oh patient pilgrim of the night, there is in 
this for thee '? Thou art now in the murky 
gloom waiting for the birth rays of the day. 
From the womb of mystery and dread thou 
art emerging. The birth pangs are around 
thee. The birth throes within thee. And 
thou shalt soon be born into the kingdom 
of perfection, and of peace. Death herself 
shall be the mother that shall deliver thee 
into the land of painless life. Hold on a 
little longer, and through the Christ thou 
shalt emerge to beauty immortal, and youth 
eternal. 

IV. And Christ's inaugural was equally 
wonderful. When kings come to thrones 
flags fly, cannon boom, people shout ; when 
priests and preachers come to office, bishops 
lay upon their heads their consecrating 
hands. But when the Son of God begins 
his public ministry, the roar of earth is 
hushed, the hands of functionaries passed 
by. Xo national display, no elevated man 
is tit to inaugurate to His high office, the 
Almighty Son of God ; that high honor 
God reserves for Himself. And so, down 
by the banks of Jordan, where John the 
forerunner was baptizing, came the marvel- 
ous stranger. For some eighteen years he 
had been silent. A solitary rift lets a 
little light in on his boyhood years. The 
time now has come. In the stalwart stat- 
ure of His youthful prime, about the age of 
thirty, he appears for baptism. The awe- 
stricken herald sinks in significance like a 
star when the sun arises, and cries, " I 
have need to be baptized of thee, and com- 
est thou to me ? " The Messiah replies, 
" Suffer it to be so now," and then descended 
to the symbolizing river. Xow the Father 
was to speak, now the stupendous proof 
that He was indeed His commissioned Son 
was to be given, not by the reverberating- 
salvos of artillery of war, not by the re- 
splendent regalia of princelings, but by His 
own direct Heaven-cleaving voice. 

And so, from the cloven sky streamed 
the Holy Ghost from the Father in dove- 
like beauty, and hovered over Christ's holy 
head like a flushing flame. Then came the 



CHRIST THE WONDERFUL. 



17 



deep call of the Creator like articulate 
thunder, " This is my beloved Son in whom 
I am well pleased." Most powerful, most 
beautiful, most significant inauguration. 
He was baptized with that holy fire that 
you might be baptized with sacred flame. 
He heard that powerful, loving voice that 
you might hear it also. If the divine man 
needed such ratification before going into 
the battle, how truly we need it too. Be- 
fore Him w r as the soul-searching, heart- 
rending fray. Before you lies somewhat of 
the same dreadful strife. Many may be the 
conflicts you have passed, numerous the 
trophies you have won, important the moral 
victories gained. But you shall never be 
quite safe till the last triumph is won, never 
altogether safe till the last foe expires. Up 
brothers up ! On sisters on ! ! Receive this 
suffusion of lambent flame. Hear this ever- 
echoing voice, follow where duty leads, 
desert not though you die. Game Chris- 
tians are in demand. In filial love obey 
utterly your Heavenly Father's will, and 
then, amid the breaking up of worlds, He 
will say with a voice detonating above the 
crash, " These are my beloved children in 
whom I am well pleased." 

V. We have seen that the antiquity, 
heraldry, birth, and inauguration of the 
Christ were most startlingly wonderful. 
Now let us penetrate a little into His most 
amazing ministry and you shall find it corn- 
men s ur ately stran ge . 

There is a solidity in The Christ that 
earth and hell never have been able to 
break up. There was a uniqueness in Him 
that was the puzzle of His times. No 
shafts from Scribe, Sadducee, or Pharisee, 
could pierce that strange armature of grand 
reserve He wore. There He stood, one 
against the aggregated world, and yet the 
one conquered. The divinity in Him alone 
explains the conquest. That divinity raised 
His personality like a wall of invincible 
adamant against every force Satan and his 
legions could bring to bear. The divinity 
dominating Him, made His life a coherent, 
consistent whole. And as each solar sys- 
tem has its sun, and each sun system its 
still greater system, till all circle round the 



great ulterior system making the universe a 
harmonic, active whole. So is it with The 
Christ. 

There may be philosophical, ethical, 
moral, legal, political, social systems, and 
other systems of which we have scant 
knowledge now, but however vast their 
size, power, number, He is the central con- 
trolling chief of all ethical and moral worlds. 
In such a government as ours where we 
call no man master, where we believe in 
independence and equality before the law, 
it may seem unduly rectoral to proclaim 
such doctrine as this. But the doctrine is 
inherent, indispensable, fundamental, and 
must be proclaimed and not only proclaimed 
bnt obeyed. There must be no legislation 
against Mount Sinai, and there must be no 
legislation against Mount Beatitude. The 
Christ is King of men, King of law, King of 
nature, King of duration. Come now and 
let us look at the surprising credentials of 
this most wondrous king. As you look at 
Him wrapped in His humble robe, dust 
stained and far-travelled, pallid with devo- 
tion, exhausted with labors by day, and 
watching by night, you might suppose Him 
some obscure fanatic just emerged from 
cave or cliff of His cavernous native land. 
But wait a little and survey Him in action. 
After His forty days fast, immediately fol- 
lowing His inaugural, His first onslaught 
was from the devil. Satan knew of His 
coming, he knew his only chance to attack 
Him with success was after His protracted 
famishment. He would then be physically 
weak, intellectually dull, and spiritually 
flaccid ; and so Satan puts himself in His 
way. The wilderness of Machaerus was 
the place ; the pinnacles of Mount Pisgah 
looked down upon the scene. The river 
Jordan and the Dead Sea watched the fray 
from far ; never had such battle been fought. 
The fate of man hung on the issue. "Com- 
mand that these stones be made bread," said 
Satan, appealing to his hunger. Jesus 
reached into the armory of God's word, 
and brought out a stiletto. "It is written, 
man shall not live by bread alone, but by 
every word of God." 

Stunned, staggered, surprised, Satan 



is 



c inn st the wonderful. 



rallied and bore him to an exceeding high 
mountain of vision where he could see all 
the kingdoms of the world in a moment of 
time and said, " All this power will I give 
unto thee and the glory of them, if thou 
wilt fall down and worship me." Jesus 
reached for another shining weapon from 
the divine armory. " Thou shalt worship 
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou 
serve." Then Satan wounded in the battle 
plaj^ed his last card. He took Him to 
Jerusalem (probably in vision) and set Him 
on the High Herodian pinnacle of the tem- 
ple, and said in sheer desperation, " If thou 
be the Son of God, cast thyself down from 
thence, for it is written, "He shall give His 
angels charge concerning thee to keep 
thee, and in their hands they shall bear 
thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a 
stone." Subvert natural law, show thou 
art superior to the course of things. Fly 
like a bird, soar like an eagle all over the 
temple platform, and astonish those below 
with exploits. But Jesus calmly answered, 
" Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God," 
and Satan, baffled, beaten, lied. 

Beloved, this initial victory teaches us 
most important truth. First, in beginning 
your life work defeat the devil first, don't 
let him or his in upon you, drive him out 
and drive him off, give, him no place not 
for a moment, have nothing to do with his 
seductive wiles, meet them all squarely like 
Christ with the "sword of the spirit which 
is the word of God." Drive him out and 
off with "Gegraptai", "it is written," this 
is the real sword that never can by him 
or his be withstood. It cuts to pieces his 
refuges and shatters into fragments his 
phalanxes. Nor were the deeds of Christ's 
ministry of mercy less startling than His 
ministry of resistance. All his deeds were 
equally astonishing. He laid His hands on 
disease and it fled away, He touched the 
eyes of the blind and they were restored, 
He spoke the word " Ephphatha" and ears 
of deaf were unstopped, and the still tongue 
of the dumb spoke, He uttered but the 
word, and even lepers were cleansed. The 
halt, the lame, the paralytic, bounded up at 
His bidding. Demons departed from the 



distressed at his word. Bread multiplied 
beneath His blessing, and wild winds, hav- 
ing down Genneseret, crouched caressing 
at His feet. Death himself, who had con- 
quered countless trillions, gave up its prey 
at His Avord. Gravitation, that great grip 
of God upon the universe, relaxed its hold 
as He went up on high, leading captivity 
captive. There was no power of dissolution 
nor of construction, but He naturally mas- 
tered, Pie proved Himself Lord alike of 
life and death, disease and health, natural 
laws and spiritual powers. There was no 
power in the intellectual, physical, moral, or 
spiritual worlds that He did not show Him- 
self easily able to control. His cry was " All 
power is given unto me in heaven and on 
earth," and He demonstrated His astound- 
ing words by His astounding deeds. Oh 
marvel of marvels ! Wonder of wonders ! ! 
Surprise of surprises ! ! ! art thou Imman- 
uel ! ! ! ! Pharisees stood stupified in thy 
presence. Devils fled aghast at thy glance. 
The amazed laws of established nature were 
struck with unutterable awe. Stupend- 
ous, unaccountable, incredible would be 
the story of Thy ministry, were it not we 
have found Thee divine. By experience we 
have found Thee. Brothers, there is no 
other way. You cannot find out Christ by 
searching for Him as a literalist like Kenan, 
nor as a philosopher like Rousseau, nor as 
an adventurer like Thomas Paine. But 
thanks to His nature and His name, you 
can And out all by personal, present experi- 
ence. F^very exact science has a test, 
mathematics has a numerical test, geometry 
has an axiomatic test, chemistry has an 
alembic test, salvation has a heart test, and 
he who honestly makes the experiment 
according to the laws of the science will be 
able to exclaim " One thing I know, that, 
whereas I was blind, now I see." 

" We have found Him of whom Moses 
in the law and the prophets did write." 

VI. But not only were the deeds of 
His ministry wonderous with mercy and 
might, but His words were also wonderful. 
There have been great orators, Demosthe- 
nes, Cicero, Chrysostom, Whitfield. But 
the verdict of Christ's hearers was " never 



CHRIST THE WONDERFUL. 



in 



man spake like this man." The multitudes 
that hung hovering on His lips are proof 
of His power. His was a new voice, His 
a new message. " These sayings of mine " 
can never be forgotten. These words of 
Christ have exceeded far all other words. 
They Ave re away ahead of His ovv r n times 
they are still ahead of our advancing era. 
The ethics of men are growing toward 
them. The morals of men are straining 
after them. The heart of the true disciple 
strains and yearns to fulfill them, but His 
sermon on the mount outstrips all efforts 
to attain unto it. Like Mount Everest, 
among the mountains of the earth, there it 
stands in its solitary, immaculate splendors. 
The sun kisses its crystal dome. The 
spirits of aspiring men its dizzy, dazzling 
heights assay. But still none ever yet 
have reached its summit, none ever yet 
have perched upon its peak and planted 
their banners there. Nor can it be con- 
sidered strange, He should so far tran- 
scend all other orators in the sublimity of 
His unequaled flights. No other orator 
ever brought such an intellect to bear upon 
His theme. He had the high advantage 
of grasping all things, men and conditions, 
by the penetrating power of His thought. 
"He needed not that any should testify 
concerning man, for He knew what was in 
men." He needed no naturalist to dissect 
a phenomenon or describe a law ; He knew 
the sacred sources, intricate workings of 
life, growth, decay. He required no prac- 
tical study to comprehend in all its group- 
ings and bearings, the most abstruse and 
difficult questions. What puzzled and par- 
alyzed other men, lay naked and open be- 
fore His mental eye. It was this clear, 
strong, surpassing intellect that helped to 
make His oratory so sublime. But more 
than this, He had a heart of fire as well as 
a head of light. He had a burning furnace 
in His soul, the spirit of the Lord was upon 
Him and within Him. He had anointed 
Him to preach. The divine fire abode in 
His heart. 

John the Baptist represented the aqueous 
element. Jesus Christ represented the 
fiery element ; His soul was a fire-full soul, 



His eye was full of fire, His thoughts were 
full of fire, His feelings were full of fire, 
His words were full of fire, His action was 
full of fire. This was what made Him 
speak as never man spake, and this is what 
makes the true preacher now. There must 
be intellect, there must be knowledge, 
there must be concentration, and consecra- 
tion. But when you come to want power in 
a preacher, you must set him on fire. No 
preacher is fit to preach without this, he 
may lack almost every other accomplish- 
ment, but if he have fire he will be useful. 
He may have every other endowment, but 
if he lack fire he will be useless. Fire illu- 
minates, fire impels, fire moves and causes 
all things to move and grow. The frosts 
of formalism fly before it. The niceties of 
ritualism retire to their cloisters of gloom, 
but the clear, clean fire of God glows and 
elevates, and comforts, and cheers, and 
causes all good to flourish. Ah, my friends, 
what would we be in a big temple like this 
without God's holy fire? We would be 
like church mice seeking a piece of bread. 
But oh, with the holy fire filling, thrilling, 
glowing in every part of the services, what 
glorious times we have? what high and 
happy joys ? what grand and glorious vic- 
tories? Victories over sin, victories over 
critics, victories over Satan, the flesh and the 
world, victories in song, in prayer, in ser- 
mon, victories over jealousy, wrath, revenge, 
victories in faith, hope, love. From hence- 
forth let no man trouble us, we bear in our 
services the fires of the Lord Jesus. 

The Souls that have been revived, the 
hearts that have been converted, the lives 
that have been saved, the sins that have 
been pardoned, the blind that have seen, 
the lame that have walked, the lepers that 
have been cleansed, the dead that have 
been raised. These! these!! are the proof 
that Jesus the Wonderful Orator has 
been speaking here. Speak on, oh blessed 
Master, speak. We love to hear in our 
hearts Thy happy voice. We love to 
feel in our hearts Thy healing glow, Thy 
burning words. Speak on ! speak on ! ! 
speak on ! ! ! till Thou hast spoken us up to 
Heaven. But, my beloved, let us not 



20 



("HEIST THE WONDEBFUI. 



mistake the utterances of our Lord. Do 
not expect some strange sight to heal your 
physical eye, nor wondrous voice to salute 
your physical ear. The need for physical 
miracles is past. We are emerging now 
to higher ground. The words of Jesus 
draw us on; and He, through the common 
occurrences of daily life, speaks to us now. 
His Kingdom is a leavening Kingdom. 
His words are leavening words. They 
penetrate business, politics and the com- 
mon affairs of men. This is what they are 
for. They are for the people. They are 
not for the favored few. They are for you 
great mass of people up there in that 
gallery and for you great multitude of 
people down there on the main-floor. 
Jesus did refer to the scriptures frequently. 
He did meet the devil with " It is mitten" 
and this is grand for you to do ; but still 
the great text-book on which Jesus drew 
was the text-book of daily life. It was to 
the people then living He preached. It 
was from the things around Him He drew 
his illustrations. It was from current 
events He received many of His inspira- 
tions. It was in answer to the quibbles of 
the quibblers He on the spot uttered many 
of His magnificent parables. He laid hold 
of the nearest object or event to point His 
moral, or drive home His truth. He put a 
sermon into a flower, a lily, a tree, a seed, 
a stone, a bird, and sent it singing through 
ten thousand souls. Nbne could hear Him 
with indifference. Everybody had to be 
interested. He was so quick, so original, 
so startling, so strong, that He made His 
hearers either glad or mad. And this kind 
of preaching does that kind of business 
now. ^N"o man should be so much afraid 
of having all men speak well of him as the 
preacher. It is a sure sign of ministerial 
decay. When the people are howling and 
lying about a preacher, then he has hit the 
devil in the eye and is doing some- 
thing worth doing. I am now not speak- 
ing of the fanatical preacher nor of the 
ignorant self-conceited ranter, but I am 
speaking of the preacher who carefully, 
prayerfully, intelligently has consecrated 
himself to declaring God's word without 



regard to personal consequences. When 
once a preacher finds that the word lovingly, 
tenderly but faithfully delivered is making 
dried up formalists mad and sinners sad 
and saints glad, let him go on, he is on the 
right track. He may have to die for his 
testimony but Jesus had to die for His 
and the servant is no better than his 
master. 

Wonderful Antiquity. 

Wonderful Forerunners. 

Wonderful Birth. 

Wonderful Inaugural. 

Wonderful Deeds. 

Wonderful Words. 

VIII. And now let us look at His 
Wonderful Death. 

He knew it was coming. He walked 
straight up to it with resolute spirit. " He 
set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem." 
Quiet, calm, firm, unrelenting, He faced the 
tragedy of Calvary. He had no apologies 
to offer for His strange life. He had no 
confessions to make to either priest, prophet 
or Pilate. Having loved His own, He loved 
them to the end. He gave them His 
last will and testament. He told them 
He was going from them. He assured them 
He was going in their interests, and would 
come for them again. He marched down 
to His Gethsemane, and up to His Praetor- 
ium, and out to His Calvary, with only sor- 
row for His persecutors, and pity for His 
assassins. Astonished Death snatched Him 
hastily, as though afraid to protract His 
agonies, and even then, as if to compensate 
for what He had done, Death let out of His 
precincts many saints, who arose and "went 
into the Holy City and appeared to many." 
As the whole of nature rejoiced at His com- 
ing into life, so the whole of nature mourned 
at His going out of life. The earth quaked, 
the rocks rent, the sun put on funereal robes, 
the temple tore its veil in grief, the winds 
may have wailed a requiem, and the angels 
may have chanted a dirge, and the stars 
may have added their symphony to the 
sad recitative. 



CHRIST THE WONDERFUL. 



2] 



Like unto no other man was lie bom, 
like unto no other man did He live, like 
unto no other man did He die. His life 
was an amazement, His death was an as- 
tonishment. His death cry was "It is fin- 
ished/ 1 He dismissed Himself from the 
field like a conqueror. Men laid His trav- 
elling tent in a new limestone tomb. 
Roman soldiers guarded it. Heavenly 
soldiers rolled the stony door away. 
The Romans in affright fell like dead men. 
The Saviour re-entered the sacred machine 
that had carried Him for thirty-three years 
and in it ascended into heaven " there to 
appear in the presence of God for us. 11 
What we call His death was His transla- 
tion, His translation was His triumph, His 
triumph was for you. Thus the most won- 
derful life was crowned with the most mar- 
velous death, and the most marvelous death 
was adorned with the most astonishing 
resurrection. In all this you see the im- 
pressive uniqueness of Christ. There was 
no break in His career. It was weak at 
no point, it was strong in infinite grandeur 
from cradle to grave. The whole of His 
course from heaven back to heaven again, 
was one coherent, consistent career of all- 
conquering glory. He completed that 
career that yon too might, in Him, complete 
yours. 

By Him you must be either saved or lost ! 
He must either dignify or doom you ! It 
remains for you to say which. You must 
have to do with Jesus ! ! The most im- 
posing wonders of Jesus are yet to appear. 
When " He cometh in the clouds of heaven 
with great power and glory,' 1 you shall see 
Him. When He assembles all nations to 
judgment, you shall see Him. When He 
calls upon you to give an account of the 
deeds done here in the body, you shall see 
Him. And oh, shall that sight fill you with 
everlasting horror or eternal glory? It is 
for you now to say which it shall be. This 
is the question. This is the most important 
question that ever has come or can come 
before you ! Which shall it be ? Which 
shall it be? ? Which shall it be? ? ? 



Prayer Before Sermon, 

Our Dear Heavenly Father, it is most 
charming to us to be able to sing "What 
a friend Ave have in Jesus? " We have 
had many friends, but never a friend 
like Him. Thou hast given Him to 
us and for us and we are not able to 
express the gratitude we feel. He is not- 
mercurial and changeable. He is never 
influenced against us by our ignorance, 
awkwardness, poverty or adversaries. No 
untoward event changes Him. He is 
always the same true, loving, helpful Friend. 
We can tell Him all our wants and woes. 
We can bring to Him all our hearts 1 deep- 
est sorrows and joys. We never have 
come to Him in vain. He always has 
helped us in time of need. He never 
leaves us nor chides us when we are faith- 
ful. Many are the soulful joys, the heart- 
felt glories that come to us from Thee 
through Him. In the solemn solitude of 
the night, in the busy work of the 
day, in the times of gladness and of sad- 
ness Thou dost abundantly, in Him, bless 
us. Thou dost bless and keep us in just 
such ways as are best. We do not always 
know what is best. But we come to 
Thee and Thou dost show us. We never 
have followed Thy leadership without 
satisfaction. We never have followed our 
own without afterward feeling that we had 
not risen to the best there is for us. We 
therefore renounce self-wisdom and self- 
impressions to follow thee. Lead us, 
Father, wherever Thou wilt and we will 
follow. Lead us o'er moor or fen, through 
wilderness or forest, up steep and ragged 
paths, along dizzy, dangerous cliffs and 
still we will follow. Lead through fiery 
trials, deep and dire distresses, torturing 
toils and winnowing tribulations, only let 
us not fall from Thee. Our hearts may be 
fevered, our minds strained, our bodies 
weary, and yet though faint we will still 
be pursuing. Because we know all health 
and strength and beauty are in Thee. And 
Thou givest to thy persevering children 
power proportioned to their trials. Suffi- 
cient unto the day is the evil thereof. 



CHRIST TIFF WONDERFUL. 



Sufficient unto the day is also the strength 
thereof. Therefore we relinquish our own 
ways and will. We know Thy will and 
way are infinitely better. Oh, Lord, make 
us all willing to say " Thy will be done." 
If any are here who prefer their own will; 
if any are here who are following the will 
of the flesh and the world and the evil 
one hehp, oh, help them by thy spirit to 
turn to thee saying ^ Lord what wilt Thou 
have me do?" And then may they hear 
Thee speak to them by Thy Blessed Spirit, 
u this is the way, walk ye in it." To this 
end bless thy truth. As we preach and 
hear Thy truth, oh may Thy Holy Unction, 
Thy heavenly light, break in upon us. May 
we see and feel what we are and what we 
ought to be. May the sight lead us away 
from every sin and into every virtue. May 
all sinners here find a Saviour. May all 
saints here find the Comforter. May all 
burdened ones hear Thee say, " Cast Thy 
burden on the Lord and He will sustain 
thee." May not one retire from this 
Temple without a blessing. Bless our 
absent ones, our sick ones, our distant 
ones. Bless this historic city. Make it 
more and more the light of not only Xew 
England and this Commonwealth, but of 
this world. Bless our land. May thy 
protecting hand guard "our Government. 
May all evil be cast out. May all good be 
brought in, and may the Xation prove 
itself under Thee, the Emancipator of Man- 
kind. Bless the entire human race. Mis- 
sionaries and missions, preachers and 
teachers in barbaric lands do Thou sustain 
and prosper. May they • soon see the 
clouds lifting from the minds of the 
heathen and then may they point them to 
the " Lamb of God, who taketh away the 
sin of the world." And, oh. Father bless 
this service and through it make us power- 
ful for thee. May we not be satisfied with 
being poor and puny and unimportant in 
this world. May we want to be strong 
that we may do strong things for Thee. 
May we want to be mighty that we may 
do mighty things for man. May we never 
desire to be great for our own sakes. but 



may we desire to be great that we may 
make others great in Thee. 

And to thee Father. Son and Spirit 
shall all praise be given. Amen. 



Prayer .flfter Sermon. 

Oh. Glorious Father, we praise Thee for 
what we have found in thy Son. We 
praise Thee that what we have found in 
Him all mankind may also find. We thank 
and praise Thee that Thy Son came out of 
everlasting glory, that we might go into 
everlasting glory. We thank and praise 
thee that thy Son had fore-runners, that we 
might be after-runners. We glorify thee 
that thy Son was born into human fiesh, 
that we might be born into spiritual lite. 
We magnify Thee that Thy Son was 
in-tailed into office by Thee, that we might 
have a glorious installation into thy service 
also. Inaugurate us now. We ascribe 
endles> praise to Thee that Thy Son 
wrought wonderful works, that we might 
do "-even greater works because he has 
gone to the Father." We give laudation 
to Thee that Jesus spake most marvelous 
words to us. that we might speak mighty 
words unto men. And we adore and 
honor Thee, because, when all had been 
accomplished that He came to do, that He 
rose victoriously from the tomb and proved 
himself the all-commanding Lord of 
worlds and forces and laws, and that now 
after clearing a course for us to heaven He 
has gone up on high there to appear in Thy 
presence for us. And shall all this be in 
vain to any of us '? Forbid it, Father, oh, 
forbid it ! ! And grant to everyone of us 
full decision for Christ. As He was wholly 
given up for us, oh may we give ourselves 
wholly up for Him. Here are our bodies, 
take them. Here are our minds, instruct 
them. Here are our hearts, inspire them. 
Here are our possessions, use them all for 
Thy honor and the good of our fellow-men 
and to the Father. Son and Spirit shall he 
all the praise. 

Amek. 



Divine Forgiveness* 



Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. Psalms. XXXII: I. 



BEFORE King David uttered these 
words he had felt the agony of an 
accusing conscience. He had sadly 
sinned. He had planned murder and 
committed adultery. He had screened his 
transgression and covered his iniquity. 
He had made plausible pretenses and 
stifled his convictions. But his heart was 
heavy. His soul was bitter. His life a 
burden. The splendors of the royal 
palace, the victories of the veterans on the 
field, the expansion of his kingdom on 
every hand could not destroy the deep, 
damnation of his guilty heart. The waves 
of sorrow swept through him. The floods 
of remorse dashed over him. The terrible 
Xemesis of crime pursued him, by night 
and haunted him by day. There was no 
rest from his inward accuser. He was 
annoyed, irritated, dejected. He was 
mortified, grieved, tormented. Spasm 
after spasm of remorse shot through his 
spirit. Convulsion after convulsion of 
despair shrunk up his soul. He felt 
himself the most ill-starred and woe- 
begone of men. He was miserable, 
broken and bleeding hearted. He felt 
wrapped up in a nightmare of wretch- 
edness. The sharp pangs of an in- 
consolable grief made his heart a hell. 
It looked as though he was going to 
eternal destruction notwithstanding all 
God had done for him. He would have 
been glad to have changed places with the 
poorest, purest citizen . His high position 
only made his torments the tenser. His 
royal privileges only added fuel to the 
flames that consumed him. The voice of 



the inward monitor and the accusing 
Nathan united in pointing to the dagger of 
vengeance. They united in crying " thou 
art the man." Death would have been 
a relief. Annihilation a blessing. At 
length it occurred to him that there might 
be merciful deliverance in God. In his 
anguish he concluded to confess his crime. 
He cried out. " I have sinned against the 
Lord." I am guilty, "Against thee and 
thee only ha*ve I sinned and done this evil in 
Thy sight.'* I have acted the part of a low, 
lecherous murderer, instead of a pure and 
noble king. I have disgraced myself, my 
family, my nation, my throne. I have 
brought dishonor on my friends, my mis- 
sion and my God. Ah, guilty creature 
that I am, would that I had died before I 
came to the birth. Oh that the grave had 
swallowed me up. I am in a horrible pit. 
I sink in miry clay. Alas! Alas! that 
ever I was born ! ! ! Amid these self- 
bemoanings there came sounding down 
from sacred story an ancient voice. That 
voice proclaimed the " Lord God merciful 
and gracious, forgiving iniquity, trans- 
gression and sin." That voice bade 
him hope. That voice may have told him, 
" He that covereth his sins shall not pros- 
per; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh 
them, shall have mercy." 

Then it was the tide of genuine penitence 
set in. Then it was he gave vent to that 
penitential pean pent up in his penitent 
though poetic breast. "Have mercy upon 
me, oh God, according to thy loving kind- 
ness, according to the multitnde of thy 
tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. 



28 



DIVINE FORGIVENESS. 



wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity 
and cleanse me from my sin, for I 
acknowledge my transgression and my sin 
is ever before me. Purge me with hyssop 
and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall 
be whiter than snow. Make me to hear 
joy and gladness, that the bones thou hast 
broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from 
my sins and blot out mine iniquities " (that 
I may not sin again.) " Create in me a 
clean heart, oh God, and renew a right 
spirit within me " (that I may be of ser- 
vice.) " Restore unto me the joy of Thy 
salvation and uphold me with Thy free 
spirit — then will I teach transgressors 
Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted 
unto thee. Deliver me from blood guilti- 
ness (the blood of Uriah) God, thou 
God of my salvation and my tongue shall 
sing aloud of Thy righteousness. Lord ! 
open Thou my lips and my tongue shall 
show forth Thy praise. For Thou delight- 
est not in sacrifice else would I give it. 
Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. 
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, 
a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou 
wilt not despise." 

Then the gloom began to break away. 
Hope came in answer to prayer. The 
strong passions of the soldier had led him 
astray. The Oriental Monarch had for- 
gotten his Messianic mission. But his 
penitence had been as deep as his sins. 
His prayer had been pathetic and powerful. 
He had flung himself utterly on the divine 
pity. He abandoned himself entirety to 
mercy. A sweet sense of forgiveness 
began to flow in upon him. The peace, the 
pleasure, the joy, the fruition of a par- 
doned soul delighted him. The felicity, 
the transport, the rapture of a redeemed 
heart, possessed him. The ecstacy, the 



elysium, the transport of a beautified nature 
elevated him to Tabor triumphs and 
Beulah blessings, and so as he sees his sins 
flying and dying away in the distance ; as 
he feels the restoring touch of divine 
friendship ; As he looks at the widening 
horizon of usefulness ; as he anticipates 
singing once again with his royal harp, the 
sweet songs of God on Sunny Zion ; as he 
reflects upon the horrible horrors from 
which he has been just delivered and the 
glorious favor to which he has been 
restored : he takes up that sweet harp, 
that had so long been silent, and striking 
it with fingers full of regal gladness, he 
sang as he had never sung before 
" Blessed is he whose transgression is 
forgiven and whose sin is covered." 

We have dwelt the longer on David and 
his sin, because he represents many people 
now living. It would not be strange if some 
of them were even here. It would be easy to 
go up and down this world and show that 
sin is a fearful fact and force. It would be 
easy to go back over history and see the 
slaughter sin has made. It would be easy 
to bring sin into court and prove by many 
witnesses, that it is more dangerous than 
the devil. That it is more horrible than 
hell. That it is the greatest enemy of 
God and the most formidable foe of man. 
It would also be easy and interesting to 
philosophize about sin. To show how 
every nation is conscious of its presence. 
How it is an attack upon the moral order 
and grandeur of the universe. How it 
breaks up our relations to our best friends 
and forfeits our claims upon our Creator. 
It would be interesting also to proclaim 
how deceitful it is, how foolish and fal- 
lacious it is, how it blinds the mind, petrifies 
the heart, and damns the soul. It would 



DIVINE FORGIVENESS. 



be engaging to discourse upon little sins and 
large sins, upon original sin and habitual 
sin. Upon sins of state and sins of 
society, upon sins of youth and sins of age, 
upon mortal and venial sins, upon secret 
sins and open sins, but all these descrip- 
tions of sin would be aside from our text. 
Besides all these phases of sin might be 
presented to you and not one of you be 
saved thereby. 

Life is too real to deal in abstractions. 
Time too short to waste in speculations. 
Your privileges are too important to be 
frittered away in dazzling dissertations. 
Bewildering generalities, empty nothings, 
may suit very well empty people, but you 
are people who mean business. You do 
not want to by soothed by literary opiates, 
and dosed by deceptive flatteries. You 
want to know the truth. It alone can 
make you great and free. It must not 
pass over you, round you, nor under you, 
if it is to save you. It must pass into you 
and stay. It must remain in your mind 
and go down into your heart. It must re- 
main in your heart and go out into your 
life. It must remain in your life and carry 
you up to Heaven. 

The truth of the text is not a discourag- 
ing, repellant truth. It is a sweet and 
charming bugle note. It is also a truth 
that can be of no practicable, personal ser- 
vice unless experienced. 

It will do you no good to know that 
King David was blessed because he expe- 
rienced pardon. It will be of no service 
to you to know that the long line of illus- 
trious saints feel the power of a heavenly 
forgiveness, unless you are led to apply for 
that forgiveness yourselves, It is there- 
fore not a historic, theoretic, alturistic work 
we pursue. Ours is not preaching which 



points to the other fellow, and excuses this 
fellow. It is preaching that points to you, 
examines you, and exclaims, if guilty, "thou 
art the man." You may be very decent, re- 
spectable people-; you may be very honor- 
able, and in many respects honest people. 
You may be esteemed good husbands, wives, 
parents, children, citizens, neighbors. This 
is all very well, you ought to be altogether 
excellent in these socialistic, domestic, and 
patriotic affairs. But it makes little differ- 
ence how noble you may be in your own 
esteem, or in the estimation of the commu- 
nity. If you have never sought and found 
the forgiveness of your Heavenly Father, 
you are an exile, a rebel, an unconfessed, 
an unpardoned sinner in the sight of God. 

This awful fact stares you in the face 
this moment. It need be no particular 
concern of thine, therefore, how much the 
Antediluvians sinned. It does not specially 
concern thee how much the Sodomites 
sinned, how much heathen nations sin, or 
how much church members sin. It is not 
any exceeding, special business of thine 
how much your neighbors sin, but it is 
awfully, closely, personally important for 
thee to know how much thou thyself hast 
sinned. Think then, of thy sins of omis- 
sion, the grand thoughts you have left un- 
thought, the divine affections you have re- 
fused to cultivate, the godlike duties you 
have left undone. Think of the sick you 
should have visited ; of the imprisoned you 
should have comforted; of the poor you 
should have helped; of the church you 
should have sustained, of the prayer meet- 
ings and class meetings you should have 
attended ; of the money you should have 
given ; of the Gocl you should have wor- 
shipped, professed, loved, adored. 

Then think of the positive sins you have 
committed. Think of the evil thoughts 
you have harbored'; of the wild passions 
you have nursed ; of the bad words you 
have spoken ; of the terrible tempers you 
indulged ; of the vicious deeds you have 
done. Pass them in review before your 
thoughts, while I speak. Trace them in 
their unbroken order. See how they rise 



30 



DIVINE FOBGIVEXEss. 



one above another like a chain of black 
accusing mountains. Behold how they 
clamour for vengeance. Look how they run 
around thee and with thee through life. 
See how they will surround thee in death. 
Remember how they will pursue thee 
through the grave. Mark how they will 
not leave thee at the judgment- seat of God. 
Think how they will rise up and hold thee 
up and cry this, this is the traitor! Think 
how they will bring upon thee the condem- 
nation of the Judge of all. Think of how 
that Judge will say. " depart from me thou 
that workest iniquity." Think of how then 
those sins will hug you, and shame yon, 
and bear you down, and rush with you 
through space ; down through the gates of 
hell, down into the abysmal billows of ever- 
gnawing woe. Ah, my brother, my un- 
pardoned brother, not then is the time for 
thee to afflict thyself on account of thy sin. 

Xot there will be the place to seek for 
pardon. Xow is the time, this is the place 
to sue for forgiveness. Dives would give 
all worlds if he had thy opportunity. The 
lost in that pit of despair and remorse 
would make any effort, if they had your 
privileges of securing pardon. 

And now 1 enter into a diagnosis of 
what is taking place in your minds and 
hearts. Sit for your inward portraits and 
I will paint you to the life. 

There is a man and he is saying there 
will be some exception made in my case. 
I shall escape results on exceptions. I am 
exceptional in nature and circumstance. I 
tell you there shall, in this case, be no ex- 
ceptions. Can you stand in the way of a 
rushing train and not be crushed ? Can 
you refuse to eat and escape starvation ? 
Can you violate the laws of nature and 
escape ? You know you cannot. How then 
can you hope to escape if you violate the la ws 
of Him who made nature ? Remember that 
spiritual law not only reaches through the 
natural, but it controls the natural, is 
greater than and more inviolate than the 
natural. You cannot break a natural law 
without a natural penalty. How much 
more impossible to break a spiritual law 



and escape a spiritual penalty? Th great 
unseen chariot of divine justice is sweep- 
ing through this world. He who stands 
in the way must be run over and crushed. 
There are no exceptions in God's moral 
government. The Divine Charioteer does 
not vary for anything, or any person, the 
millionth part of an inch in a million ages. 
The law cannot change, because God can- 
not change. " With Him is no variable- 
ness, neither shadow of turning." He can- 
not change to you. You must change to 
Him. He gives you every facility. He 
presses pardon on you. He offers it to 
you. He sent His Son to bring it within 
your reach. He sends His word to instruct 
you to tile your petitition. He sends His 
spirit to convince you of sin, of right- 
eousness and of judgment." He sends His 
messengers to preach, to warn, to per- 
suade, to entreat, to implore you to ** seek 
Him while He may be found, and to call 
upon Him while Fie is near." 

If you let your best instructions lead 
you. you will be led to Calvary now. 
There you will confess your guilt before 
the Crucified. There you will plead your 
cause through the Saviour, who has hung 
in the throes of atoning torture for you. 
And then, too. if you persevere, if you be- 
lieve, if you mean to sin no more, you will 
hear the inly speaking voice saying: 
" Thy sins, which are many, are all for- 
given. " Like the pilgrim of Bunyan, you 
will feel the burden of guilt roll from your 
heart into a bottomless sepulchre near the 
Cross. Ah, beloved, what a privilege 
now is Thine. Thou mayest now know 
the blessings of forgiveness Thou mayest 
go home rejoicing in a pardoning God. 

But here is another man who says 
•• there is time enough for me. Preacher, 
I believe all you say : but I am young and 
strong and want to see the world and fol- 
low the band and have a good time and 
be free to do as I choose. I want to go 
to the theatre and the dance. I want to 
visit the saloon with my friends occasion- 
ally. I want to play cards and indulge 
my tastes for social pleasures. My pro- 



DIVINE FORGIVENESS. 



31 



gram is pardon at the end, but liberty 
now." Ah! man, thy liberty is license. 
Thy program is insulting to God and 
angels. Thy program is perilous, shame- 
ful and dishonorable ! ! ! What if thou 
hadst a son that proposed to act in that 
way to thee ? A son who would come to 
thee and say : " I know that thou art true 
and good, my father ; but I am strong and 
healthy. And thou hast given me my 
many privileges ; but I want to throw off 
Thy restraints. I want to go to the 
places thou hatest. I want to do the 
things thou abhorest. I want to go and 
spend what fortune is coming to me in 
' chambering and wantonness,' and then 
when I am reduced to poverty and dis- 
ease, and can enjoy these abominations no 
longer, then I will come to thee and ex- 
pect thee to pardon me and reinstate me 
in my strength, riches and glory " ! ! ! You 
say such a son is shameful and dishonor- 
able. And yet thou art that son. We 
know God is very good and of great 
mercy. We know His mercy is set forth 
in the parable of " The Prodigal " in the 
most endearing terms. But that parable 
was not spoken to encourage thee to be- 
come a prodigal. It was spoken that none 
might despair. It was uttered that the 
worst might hope. It was spoken to show 
that God is loving, and saves to the utter- 
most, the uttermost sinner. But that is no 
reason you should become the uttermost 
sinner. If, with eyes open, you rebel 
against God thus, you shall surely suffer 
the consequences of such inexcusable trea- 
son ! ! 

But here is a third man, and he is 
full of self-excusings. You, sir, say you 
cannot feel the importance of present par- 
don ; that other things are more important 
to you now. You want to read and think 
more. You want to succeed in this world 
before beginning to prepare for the next. 
You don't want to handicap your profes- 
sional or political aspirations by carrying 
around a sense of obligation. And be- 
sides all this, you hate the hypocrisy of 
the churches. You hate sham in anything, 



but especially in religion. You want to 
be genuine when you start. I will tell you 
how genuine you will be. You will be so 
genuine a sinner that you will never start 
at all. Worldliness is aggregative. Sin- 
fulness is accumulative. Evil is aggres- 
sive. Evil puts on its coating every year 
as does a tree. The longer you live in 
sin the harder it is to get out of sin. It 
builds wall after wall around you. It puts 
rind after rind upon you. It lays incrusta- 
tion after incrustation over you. Your 
very soul becomes so imprisoned in its in- 
crement that nothing can deliver you from 
its dense, dire captivity. Even God him- 
self, who loves you so tenderly, who has 
given his best to save you, will say when 
that fatal time arrives, " I have called and 
you refused. I have stretched out my 
hand and no man regarded. You have 
set at naught all my counsel, and would 
none of my reproof. I also will laugh at 
your calamity. I will mock when your 
fear cometh ; when your fear cometh as a 
storm, and your calamity cometh on as a 
whirlwind ; when distress and anguish 
come upon you ! Then shall you call upon 
Me, but I will not answer. You shall seek me 
diligently, but you shall not find Me. For 
that you hated knowledge and did not 
choose the fear of the Lord. You would 
none of my counsel. You despised all my 
reproof. Therefore shall you eat of the 
fruit of your own way and be filled with 
your own devices." Dear sinner, now is 
your time. Then will be God's time. 
Why expose yourself to such disaster? 
You would reckon a man a lunatic who 
would rush into temporal calamity. But 
you should reckon yourself a greater lun- 
atic, for you rush into eternal calamity. 
Oh ! brothers ! sisters ! let me entreat and 
implore you to flee the penalty and pursue 
the pardon. There is no penalty so awful 
as that of unpardoned sin. You might fail 
in business ! You might be arrested and 
thrown into prison ! ! You might be taken 
out and hung by the neck until you are 
dead ! ! ! You can afford all this ; but 
you cannot afford to " stretch out your 



32 



DIVINE FORGIVENESS. 



hand against God." You cannot afford to 
"strengthen yourself against the Al- 
mighty." You cannot afford to run " upon 
the thick bosses of his bucklers." There 
is no blessing for you in that. AH bitter- 
ness, sorrow, anguish, defeat, agony, des- 
pair, remorse lie that way. But' there are 
beautiful and abundant blessings in divine 
pardon. 

But I seem to hear another say oh, 
preacher, tell others of these blessings. 
There is now no blessing for me. I have 
sinned away my day of grace ! My heart 
grows blacker as the days go by, my life 
seems hopeless now. Once I was young 
and prosperous ; once I was full of " heart 
and hope ; once by the side of my dear, 
fond mother, I learned my evening prayer. 
Once she placed her soft, soothing hand 
upon my cheek. She stroked with love my 
tangled hair, she caressed and kissed me 
into slumber; she smiled upon me sweetly 
when I woke. She told me I was her dar- 
ling boy. She sent me to school with her 
kindest blessing and greeted me with love 
when I returned. She told me I would be 
a support to her when I was grown, and 
then we would comfort each other for the 
father that had gone. And so we lived 
hopefully and happily. .She thought noth- 
ing was too good for me. I felt nothing 
was too good for her. But one sad day 
she sickened, and she died. She drew me 
to her side and placed for the last time her 
dear, fond hand upon my brow. She told 
me she was going home to meet him whom 
we both had loved. She turned her eyes 
upward and said, God bless and keep my 
darling child. She seemed to think noth- 
ing of herself; she only seemed to think of 
me. And, then with her last breath she 
said, God bless and keep my dear, doubly, 
orphaned boy. I scarcely realized the 
meaning of it then. But she was gone. I 
was taken with her to the grave. I re- 
turned thinking of the cold, dark ground 
where that dear mother lay. I soon found 
the world was as cold and stern as the 
earth that covered her. I went out into 
the toils of life and many a time since then 



I have longed to lie in silence by her side. 
I thought sometimes of her lustrous, loving 
looks, but the tinsel, show, glitter, and 
glamour of the world gradually grew upon 
me. I went at first tremblingly forward 
into vice, but time and habit have hardened 
me now. I begin to feel the vanquishing 
effects of sin. My body is growing prema- 
turely old. My soul is sad and lone. 
Sometimes I pray, but my praj-ers rise no 
higher than my head. The heavens seem 
brass; the earth iron; my heart stone. Oh 
God ! what shall I do? Oh ! friends is 
there pardon for such a wretch as I ? It 
seems there is no such loving pardon as 
others find; I have sinned too deeply and 
too long. My guilt is of the deepest hue. 
I feel like a Macbeth fresh from the mur- 
der of a Duncan. I look upon my crimson 
crimes and then out on nature's floods and 
cry, " Will all great Neptune's ocean wash 
this blood clean from my hand? No, my 
hand will rather the miutitudinous seas in- 
carnadine, making the green one red." 
Ah! my brother, Us icell that thou art come. 
Thy mother's God is here to forgive. She 
still with Him remembers thee. The sensi- 
tive agonies through which you pass, are 
but the drawings of the bridle toward 
home. Thy mother's hand may be on 
that bridle still. • She loved thee then, 
she has not forgotten thee now. She is 
waiting and watching till thou dost come. 
Her heaven will be incomplete without 
thee there. And as for pardon that is 
purchased for thee now. Thou dost not 
need like Macbeth to look m vain to great 
ocean to wash away thy stains. Thou 
needs't not fear that thy red sins will the 
seas of God's love incarnadine, pardon is 
purchased and promised to thee. The Son 
of God has come to save from sin. This 
is His business. He has come to save. 
No other has! He has come to pardon ! 
No other can! ! He makes a specialt} r in 
this line and none other does. He has a 
monopoly, for none other may. He does 
not act the monopolist, however, for He 
transacts the business free. He is in the 
pardoning business without regard to price. 



DIVINE FO R GIVEJSTESS. 



33 



Prelates may charge for purgatory. 

Preachers may charge for preaching. 
But Jesus makes no charge for pardon. 

If thou wilt but come to Him and be- 
lieve in Him "Thy sins though as high as 
a mountain shall all disappear in the foun- 
tain." "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's 
Son, cleanseth from all sin." The "Lamb 
of God taketh away the sin of the world." 
I have told you He makes a specialty of 
this business. If you want ant/thing 
you go to the persons who deal in it. If 
you want clothing you go to the clothier. 
If furniture, you go to the furniture com- 
pany. If shoes, you go to the shoe store. 

Xow Jesus Christ is dealing in pardons. 
Almighty God has established Him in that 
one particular specialty. He gives free, 
full, present pardon to every one who 
comes according to the condition. There 
is only one condition. And that is, that 
you are so sorry for your sins that you will 
quit. That's all He asks. He is in the 
business and he knows when you mean 
business. He has been so long in the bus- 
iness that you can't deceive Him. If you 
only want a little heart ease and comfort 
till you gather strength to go out and go 
on with your sins again you need not go to 
Him. He will pay you no attention. Fie 
pardons no one who intends going on in 
sin. That kind of business is against His 
business. He will take no interest in you 
till you quit taking stock in sin. If you 
want pardon and are willing to get out of 
the sinning business and into the saving- 
business, Jesus stands ready to forgive you 
for all you ever did. He delights to do it. 
There is joy in heaven when He does it. 
Pardon by Him is the greatest blessing in 
this universe. Because it contains so 
many other blessings. Look at the kind 
of pardon it is. It puts you in a position 
to be treated as though you never had 
sinned. Jesus is not like your friend who 
buries your offense in a shallow pond 
where he can fish it up and fling it at you 
again. Xo, the God in Christ buries your 
sins in the deep of His bottomless love, so 
that they will not be even " mentioned to 
you " again. 



The pardon brings the blessing of a com- 
forting conscience. The convicting con- 
science goes. The comforting conscience 
comes. 

This pardon brings the blessing of power 
from on high. When you are forgiven 
the Holy Spirit notes it in Heaven and 
notes it in your heart. That Spirit comes 
upon you in proportion as you open up to 
Him. " When you open fully, He fills you 
fully. This pardon brings peace as well as 
power, and prosperity as well as peace. 
The universe which was set to curse you, 
now is set to bless you. The minutest event 
as well as the mightiest advent is com- 
manded to favour you forever and ever! ! ! 
Truly with the royal harpist thou mayest 
sing, " Blessed is he whose transgression is 
forgiven and whose sin is covered." Amex. 

Prayer Before Sermon. 

Our ever blessed Father, we meet to 
learn more of Thee. The more we know 
of. Thee the better we love Thee. The 
more we love Thee the happier we are, 
and the more we love each other. We are 
unworthy of these beautiful privileges of 
Thy house. We feel unworthy to read 
Thy word and sing Thy praise. We feel 
unworthy to even utter Thy great and 
glorious name. Our sins have made us 
sad and useless, when our virtues should 
have made us glad and useful. We con- 
fess our transgressions before Thee. Oh, 
Lord God, have mercy upon us. Spare 
us, pity us, soften and sweeten us. Make 
us free from our bitter selves. Draw us 
to Thy loving self. Fold us in Thy bosom. 
Keep us in Thy care, protect us from all 
evil. Defend us in the times of trial and 
temptation. Defend us when we are 
attacked in our weakest points. Preserve 
and deliver us when we are assailed 
through our easily besetting sins. When 
Satan assaults us through the sins that are 
most natural and pleasant to us, — when 
the world seeks to gain upon us through 
the things that are pleasing, then, oh Lord 
God of strength, appear in our behalf. 
Stay round us. Live in us, and let us not 
be betrayed into backsliding from Thee, 



34 



DIVINE FORGIVENESS. 



nor indifference to Thee in Thy cause by the 
enticing sophistries of our enemies. And, oh 
F ather, when the battle rages, when the 
foe waxes fierce, when in solid phalanx 
and fearful force, like a rushing flood, the 
foe conies in upon us, then, oh, then lift 
up a standard against him. Let Thy 
standard, not the standard of our opinion, 
not the standard of human custom, not the 
standard of popular habit, but the standard 
Thy Son has set up, be the beautiful ban- 
ner that floats before us, giving us courage, 
marking out our way. Oh, Lord, we 
thank Thee for giving us this great Path- 
finder, Thy Son. We thank Thee that He 
has cloven a course of conquest through 
this wicked world. We thank Thee He 
has left His principles in His example, as 
well as in His precepts. We thank Thee 
He has fenced on either side the way He 
opened. It is a strange way and a narrow 
way, with here and there a traveller. But 
we bless Thee that it is a safe way, an 
ascending way, a way marked not only by 
blood stains, by tear drops, but also by stars 
that guide to glory. We therefore, dear 
Father, gather unto Thyself this day from 
our own ways. They are devious, broad, 
blasting, blighting, and crowded with the 
multitudes. We abandon them utterly, 
however attractive and -inviting. We know 
they lead downward to many a trouble and 
many a tear. We know they lead into the 
wild wastes of sin ; into the barren wilder- 
ness of famine ; into the roaring furnaces 
of hell. Oh, Lord God, we do thank Thee 
we are on the way of holiness to-day. 
There is no ravening beast up here. The 
lions of sin, the leopards of transgression 
come not up hither. The serpents of vice, 
the unclean, may not even cross over. But 
the redeemed of the Lord walk upon it. 
"They return to Zion with songs and 
everlasting joy upon their heads" and 
within their hearts, " and sorrow and sigh- 
ing flee away." Therefore, oh Lord, we 
disport ourselves upon this way of Thine. 
We delight ourselves in Thee. We de- 
light also in each other, because we de- 
light in Thee. We thank Thee for the 
unity, love and peace of Thy people here. 
Keep each one faithful. Let none 20 



astray. Let none wander off into sin. May 
all be faithful to their solemn vows. May 
we ali give our all to Thee, that Thou 
mayest give Thy all to us. What a poor, 
pitiable all is ours compared with Thine ! 
Yet this is the great and marvelous ex- 
change Thou hast proposed. We do adore 
Thee for it ; we avail ourselves of it. We 
give ourselves up, body, soul, spirit, mem- 
ory, mind, will, every fibre of our life. 
Every force and faculty of our being and 
of circumstance we solemnly now and here 
devote utterly to Thee. Take us, keep 
us, make us what Thou wilt, and not what 
we would. What seems best to us may 
appear worst to Thee. What seems worst 
to us may appear best to Thee. We know 
we are foolish and that Thou art wise. 
We therefore say, " Our Father which art 
m Heaven, Thy will" in us and by us be 
done. And we pray Thee to be with the 
sick and poor rich, and rich poor of our 
Church and of our city. Let Thy pleasure 
prevail in our civic/ state and' national 
affairs. May this nation never swerve 
from its loyalty to Thee. As the needy 
immigrants flock to these great cities may 
they not heathenize us. May we evan- 
gelize them. May they not perish in their 
Old World vices ; but may they adopt our 
Kew World virtues. And so may the 
nation go on teaching the ignorant, guid- 
ing the erring, lifting the fallen, building 
men and women up into such spiritual 
manhood and womanhood as shall shed 
the lustre of hope over all the earth. To 
this end bless this service and all such ser- 
vices. Bless all preachers, teachers and 
students. Bless all universities, schools and 
colleges. Bless the secular press and make 
it sacred. Bless the sacred press and 
make it evangelistic. Bless all writers and 
speakers and make them divine. And now 
Father, bless Thy word. May we not 
preach it because it is a function ; but be- 
cause it is a Life. May we not hear it be- 
cause it is a custom ; but because it is a 
delight. And send us to our homes, 
knowing we have had a great lift toward 
Thee.^ And to Thee, one in three and 
three in one, shall all the praise be given. 
Amen. 



The Money Question* 



** And he said unto them take heed and beware of covetousness : for a man's life consisteth 
not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Luke 12 : 15, 



THE political plough on the money 
question is passing through the land. 
When the hearts of men are opened 
on any subject, that is the time to sow the 
divine seed on that subject. 

This is why it suits now to show the 
divine side of the money problem, The 
leaders of the various parties display the 
human view. It is the function of the pul- 
pit to reveal the divine vision. This vision 
will last when all others have vanished. 
This vision gives the glow that colors eter- 
nal character. That kind of character is 
of in finite importance to you. No man 
can conduct himself properly in the use of 
money till he takes God's way of doing it. 
Man's way and God's way are opposites. 
Man looks at money as a medium of tem- 
poral exchange. Gocl looks at money as a 
means of securing eternal friendship. 
" Make to yourselves friends of the mam- 
mon of unrighteousness that when it fails, 
(these friends) may receive you into ever- 
lasting habitations." He who understands 
the use of money talks with Jesus through 
His sermon on the mount. Christ creates 
the only kingdom that never ends. He 
founded it without money, yet he recog- 
nized money as a function and permitted 
one of his disciples to bear the (purse) bag. 
It is true however, that Judas was the only 
disciple who sold Him for silver, and he 
has had many imitators. From the blood 
of Judas on the field of Aceldama, comes a 
voice that bids us get on the right side of 
money. 

Political science is now seeking to show 



the best kind of money. Goldites say gold 
and silver. Silverites say silver and gold. 
The business of this pulpit is to show how 
to use both. There has not been a cam- 
paign in history when it was so difficult 
for a broadly educated and deeply think- 
ing mind to decide which of the two great 
parties is right. There is a strong sense in 
which they are both right. There is also a 
strong sense in which they are both wrong. - 
Both present advantages and disadvantages. 
I feel quite sure Mr. McKinley, who is one 
of God's noblemen, sees vital points in 
which Mr. Bryan is right, and I am also 
convinced Mr. Bryan, who is also one of 
God's great men, sees vital points in which 
Mr. McKinley is right. Those of you who 
have studied but one side will think this a 
strange position. But it is the position of 
the thinker and not the partisan, of the 
broad statesmen, and not the narrow poli- 
tician . 

Place the two financial gospels of the 
two leading parties side by side and look 
at them impartially. The gold standard 
friends say gold is the ultimate measure of 
value of the most enlightened nations. 
The silver friends say America is powerful 
and free, and should not be either pinioned 
or pioneered by other nations. The gold 
folks say their standard will prevent a flood 
of inflation that would debase our money 
to about half its value. The silver folks 
assert there will be no debased currency 
nor undue inflation, and that the silver 
movement will bring gold down and silver 
up to a proper parity with each other. 



40 



THE MONEY QUESTION. 



The gold friends claim it is necessary to 
maintain the present standard in order that 
bank depositors, pensioners, persons in- 
sured, all who have loaned money, and all 
who work for money may be paid in dol- 
lars that have full purchasing power. The 
silver friends assert that there is too little 
money; that the money we have is too 
highly appreciated ; that the price of the 
products of the people are too low. That 
money is so dear we cannot secure sufficient 
to pay current expenses. That the present 
system is enriching the money lending 
class, but impoverishing the productive 
class. That wheat which sold for a dollar 
and a quarter now sells for fifty cents. 
That hard times lock fast the prosperity of 
the people in the paralyzing power of mon- 
ometallism. That this kind of metallism is 
a British policy and its adoption has brought 
other nations into servitude to London. 
That submission to such servitude is un- 
American and anti- American, and can be 
fastened on the United States only by the 
stifling of that love of liberty which pro- 
claimed political independence in 1776. 
That this threatened subserviency to the 
money power of England can be 
avoided by the free coinage of both silver 
and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 
1. That this will increase the volume of 
money and make it keep pace with our con- 
stantly increasing population. That want 
of money makes hard times. That posses- 
sion of money makes easy times, and that 
where most money is circulating, the poor 
man will have the best chance of earning 
some. 

This is a fair statement of the position 
of both parties. By impartially looking at 
the two positions you will discover that 
both have disadvantages and advantages. 



If you go with the gold men, you continue 
the present constricted system which seems 
to chafe so severely on the shoulder of the 
middle classes and the poor, and tends to 
give undue privileges to the rich. If you go 
with the silver men, you initiate a system 
which will make every man who has 
money have from ten to fifteen per cent, 
less money value than he has to-day. But if 
both platforms have their losses, they both 
likewise have their gains. When Mr. Mc- 
Kinley is President, every person who has 
banked money, and every person who earns 
money, will be paid in coin at least 
as valuable as the present dollar. If 
Mr. Bryan had been elected, there 
would have been many more dollars 
to pay with and you would therefore 
have a better opportunity of getting 
some. Money makes enterprise, enterprise 
makes work, and work in turn makes 
money. 

The gain of the gold side is that it pays 
creditors in full. The benefit of the silver 
side is that it enables debtors to pay their 
debts when otherwise they might not be 
able to pay at all. The bane of the goldites 
is injury to the poor. The bane of the sil- 
verites is injury to the rich. Between these 
benefits and banes you must choose. Your 
duty is to weigh which side has the least 
bane and the most blessing, and vote ac- 
cordingly. The following should help you 
in making up your mind : History, Scrip- 
ture and the Holy Spirit. History proves 
it is dangerous to legislate so as to make 
easy the passage of wealth from the many 
to the few. Egypt, Assyria, Greece, 
Rome, all fell when the many were impov- 
erished by the rapacity of the few. It was 
right that they should then decay. What 
was right then is right now. Sacred story 



THE MONEY QUESTION. 



41 



as well as secular will help you to decide 
justly. The money current of the world 
set in toward Jerusalem, under King 
David. That current culminated under 
Solomon. Rehoboam, his son and suc- 
cessor, was intoxicated by it. When the 
oppressed masses petitioned for redress he 
told them, " My father made your burden 
heavy, but I will add thereto : My father 
chastised you with whips, but I will chas- 
tise you with scorpions." The people in- 
dignantly replied, " What portion have we 
in David ? Every man to your tents, oh 
Israel, and now David see to thine own 
house." Immediately came the disruption, 
and soon the capture and dispersion. Our 
Saviour has laid the foundation of the 
model republic. Its spirit is self-sacrifice. 
Its law is benevolence. Its basis is love. 
Its motto, " Give and it shall be given." 
Its principle, " Go sell that thou hast and 
give to the poor and come and follow me." 
It presses hard on grab and greed, and 
proclaims, " It is easier for a camel to go 
through the eye of a needle than for a rich 
man to enter into the Kingdom of Hea- 
ven." Its politics is, " Silver and gold, 
have I none ; but such as I have give I 
unto thee ; in the name of Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth arise and walk." 

Its thunderheads, hurled against the 
rich men are : 

" Go to now, ye rich men, weep and 
howl for the miseries that shall come upon 
you. 

Your riches are corrupted, and your 
garments are moth-eaten. 

Your gold and silver is cankered ; and 
the rust of them shall be a witness against 
you, and shall eat your flesh as it were 
fire : ye have have heaped treasure together 
for the last days. 



Behold, the hire of the labourers 
which have reaped down your fields, 
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth : 
and the cries of them which have reaped 
are entered into the ears of the Lord of 
sabaoth. 

Ye have lived in pleasure on the 
earth, and been wanton ; ye have nourish- 
ed your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. ■ 

Ye have condemned and killed the 
just ; and he doth not resist you. 

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto 
the coming of the Lord. Behold, the hus- 
bandman waiteth for the precious fruit of 
the earth, and hath long patience for it, 
until he receive the early and latter rain. 

Be ye also patient; stablish your 
hearts : for the coming of the Lord draw- 
eth nigh. 

Grudge not one against another, 
brethren, lest ye be condemned : behold, 
the Judge standeth before the door." 

It is most dangerous to be a rich poor 
man. It is proof of human insanity that 
so many are willing to face the danger. 
The man who makes money dishonestly 
is in awful peril. " He that getteth riches 
and not by right shall leave them in the 
midst of his days and in the end shall be a 
fool." 

" He that by usury and unjust gain in- 
creaseth his substance, -he shall gather it 
for him that will have pity on the poor. His 
children are far from safety and they are 
crushed in the gate. Neither is there any 
to deliver them : the robber swalloweth up 
their substance." 

" Getting treasure by a lying tongue is 
a vanity tossed to and fro of them that 
seek death." " They that will be rich fall 
into temptation and a snare, and into many 
foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men 



42 



THE MOEXY QUUSTIOX. 



in perdition. For the love of money is the 
root of all evil, which, while some have 
coveted after, they have erred from the 
faith, and pierced themselves through with 
many sorrows." 

Such are a few samples of the terrible 
detonations that come thundering out of 
eternity through the word of God. 

It would be better to be thrown into the 
belching vortex of the crater of Vesuvius 
than to be a dishonest, hard-hearted, close- 
fisted, rich scoundrel. And any govern- 
ment framed in favor of such scoundrelism 
is no better than the scoundrel. And he 
who votes to support such rich rascals is a 
partner in their rascality. Do not under- 
stand by tins that all rich men are vicious. 
There are some rich men who have as 
true, loving hearts as ever beat above a 
belt ; and there are some poor men as rank 
and rotten clean through as any carcass 
that ever festered beneath the beak of vul- 
tures. Under these conditions, the business 
is to proclaim something that will save the 
rapacious rich and the pestilent poor, and 
at the same time take proper care of the 
virtuous as well as vicious middle classes. 
You will find badness in every strata of 
society ; but you will find the extreme 
vices at the extremes of society. 

The way men make and spend money 
is closely related to the way they make 
character and destiny. Show how a man 
makes and spends his money and that 
will show how he is making himself soc- 
iety and futurity. Xo analysis need be 
made of how you make and spend your 
money. It is the duty of this pastorate to 
proclaim how you ought to make and 
spend it. When once you see your own 
duty you will be the better able to discern 
what kind of government will best enable 



you to do it. How then ought you to earn 
money ? You ought to make money ear- 
nestly, honestly and industriously. Ear- 
nestly, that is, put your energies into mak- 
ing it. Honestly, that is. give a just equi- 
valent for what you receive. Industriously 
that is. producing or doing something that 
is of service to society. In other words 
industrialize yourself, and never be content 
except when making yourself useful in 
every way to your employer and every- 
body else inside the range of your influ- 
ence. It is a singular fact that you can 
scarcely meet anyone who does this who 
is ever hard-up even in hard times. God 
makes it easy for his faithful workers. 
TTisdom " cannot be gotten by gold, nei- 
ther satisfaction by silver." " He that lov- 
eth silver shall not be satisfied with sil- 
ver.*' Xo metallic substance can satisfy a 
soul. Virtue is the spring of victory, and 
no kind of metallism can create virtue. 
Xeither the goldite nor silverite gospel 
can do what this nation needs to have 
done. The more gold and silver some 
people have the worse it is for them and 
the nation. Money cannot close the dram 
shops ; but money is used to keep them 
flourishing. 

Abundance of wealth does not shut up 
vile theatres, and blighting brothels ; but 
fans them into fuller blast. Monetary 
atfluence cannot stay the blasphemous 
tongues of infidelity. For one thousand 
dollars per night one such tongue speaks 
through the land. 

Sordid gam cannot beat back the incom- 
ing tides of papal superstition that send 
their mephitic spray over all the earth : but 
opens channels through which they sweep 
millions into the vortex of error. 

The way money is used at present can- 



THE MONEY QUESTION. 



43 



not shiver selfish syndicates, treacherous 
trusts, and diabolical combinations that 
prey upon the vitals of the middle classes 
and the poor , but feeds these vast aggre- 
gations of hoarded wealth. 

The manner in which money is usually 
looked at cannot turn the general trend of 
government which facilitates the enrich- 
ment of the rich; and renders abor- 
tive by bribed legislation, the struggles 
of the masses for comfort and competence. 
The way money now is used does not 
purify politics, nor renovate politicians, nor 
elevate governmental methods to the dig- 
nity of governmental ethics and fraternal 
statesmanship ; but rather encourages 
political aspirants to believe that to " the 
victors belong the spoils." 

The way money now is spent does not 
tend to check hate and jealousy and envy 
in our fellowmen, but rather has the tend- 
ency to foster anger, envy and revenge in 
the bosoms of long-suffering and impover- 
ished citizens. Let this state of things 
continue and in another generation we 
shall be ripe for revolution. What there- 
fore I now have to say on the way money 
should be used is as much for the good of 
the rich as for the welfare of the poor, for 
the prosperity of the nation as for the pros- 
perity of the person. We shall therefore 
go back to where we started and reiterate 
our proposition that if we will use money 
safely we must take God's way of doing it. 
Money was never by him intended to make 
people proud, haughty, exclusive, avaric- 
ious and exacting, much less autocratic and 
tyrannical. And yet fairness forces us 
to say that such is the influence of much 
money on most people. 

Xow let us lay down the inevitable and 
immutable law of the Eternal God on this 
vital theme, because as a man uses his 
money so is he. The way he uses his 
money enthrones or damns. Mark, I do 
not say a man can purchase heaven with 
money, but what I do say is that after he 
has accepted God's free gift of salvation by 
faith alone, then he is to go forth and im- 
itate God and give salvation to others by 
every power God has placed within his 



reach. If a man has money it is a talent. 
It is a function. It is an opportunity to 
rise to the side of the Great Giver and like 
Him become a benefactor. 

My contention is that money is not 
given us to make us narrow, mean, exclu- 
sive, misanthropic, luxurious, selfish and 
atheistic, but it is given us to make us 
broad, noble, inclusive, philanthropic, ab- 
stemious, generous and Godlike. God has 
made money a means by which he trains 
men to be like Himself. He is ever giving, 
night and day, moment by moment, life, 
light, health and happiness. He taxes His 
worlds to crowd His glittering gifts upon 
us. The whole living temple of all this 
universe teems with most magnificent 
gifts. The sublimities above are all for 
the humanities below. The -grandeur of 
the sun ; the glory of the moon ; the free- 
dom of the vastness of space ; the limit- 
less immensities thronged with abounding 
worlds, all rain down their blessings upon 
us. God so fashioned the earth that it 
pours forth its endless annual gifts ; gifts 
from mountain and mine ; gifts from ra- 
vine and river ; gifts from field and forest ; 
gifts from isle and continent ; gifts from 
sea and ocean ; gifts from animal and in- 
sect; gifts of fish and fowl; gifts of 
government by gravity; gifts from great 
and small; gifts, gifts from everything. 
And when all these gifts of sky and sea 
showed insufiiciency to woo and win and 
transform us into unselfish givers, "God 
spared not his only well beloved Son 
but gave him freely up for us all," add- 
ing the challenging promise, " How shall 
He not with Him also freely give us all 
things '?" And then when men were still 
refractory and obstinate, hypocritical, sel- 
fish and rebellious to such an extent as to 
even murder that best beloved Son ; yet 
still His benevolence broke through all 
and sent down upon us the divine light of 
His Holy Spirit to open our eyes, to turn 
us from darkness to light. And as the sun 
of nature continues to kiss the earth and 
it blushes into sheets of emerald and gold, 
so that sweet, holy light still continues to 
enswathe us, shining upon us and within 



44 



THE MONET QUESTION. 



us, working within us, instructing us, in- 
spiring and consoling and comforting us, 
and trying to lift us up where we shall 
catch the beneficent rays of our forsaken 
Father's face, and become so transformed 
that we shall stop our narrow, mean, piti- 
able selfishness and become large, liberal 
and generous givers in our measure as is 
He. 

Oh, brothers, I wish I could send this 
idea from the gospel bow tonight clear 
into your hearts, so that it would ever 
work from thence. You may not be rich, 
you may be even poor, but still you must 
rise to this spirit of generosity. You must 
open up toward God and let the Great 
giver in. Then He will make yon like 
himself. He will give you, sweet, strong, 
undying love for men. He will take you 
and say to you my child I may not trust 
thee with natural riches, but this is for thy 
good. I love thee so well I will give not 
only angels charge concerning thee, but I 
love thee so much I will give all things 
charge concerning thee, and make them all 
work together in unbroken order for thy 
good. I want to make thee like myself. 
I want to lift thee to myself. I want to 
share with thee when thou art come to 
maturity in thy spiritual life all things. 
I want to make thee mine heir and my 
co-heir with my son Jesus. " All are yours, 
for ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." 
But before I can lift thee to such illustrious 
and illimitable riches, glory and honor, I 
want to train thee to be like him and 
like me. I give thee only these five dol- 
lars per week now, but I want thee for my 
sake to give fifty cents of that for me and 
then I will give thee more, and when I give 
ten dollars per week I want thee to give one 
dollar for my sake, and when I give thee 
twenty dollars per week I want thee to 
give two for me ; and when after a while I 
make it thirty or forty or fifty or one 
hundred per week, then I want thee not to 
forget me but to give still thy tenth, 
sacredly for my sake to bring mine home 
to me, and then when thou hast been 
trained into an unselfish benevolent giver 
so that thou hast become in spirit like my- 



self, then I will come and take thee to 
myself " that where I am thou mayest be 
also." And here I will share all the inheri- 
tance of all this vast universe with thee. 
Thou shalt have aportionin every mine, in 
every treasure, in every world. And so 
great is my wealth " that eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it 
entered unto the heart of man to conceive 
the things that I have laid up for them that 
love me." 

Ah, my hearers if I could only succeed 
in lifting you to this divine view of how to 
use money. What infinite bliss would lie 
in the lift. No longer would you " spend 
your money for that which is not bread, 
nor your strength for that which satisfieth 
not." No longer would you spend the 
money God has given you to train you and 
educate you and make you like himself, 
in satan's revelries, nor in worldly and 
needless luxuries. Not longer would you 
use your money to feed vile passion in the 
theatres, nor to glut damning appetite in 
the saloon, nor to nourish the gnawing 
heart- worm that never dies in the house of 
death. Not longer would you hoard up 
money penuriously in the bank nor in the 
bond as if God's word was not stronger 
than bank or bond. Not longer would 
you clutch eagerly after dollars as if they 
were tickets of admission to heaven . No : 
you would then be lifted to a place in the 
kingdom of God where you would make 
yourself by honest, earnest, industry, a 
noble workman of your class. You would 
work with a will, with a gladsome heart 
and free, because you would then be work- 
ing not to earn a petty pittance for your- 
self. But rising above all miserly spirit 
and puny pelf swinging up and out upon 
the mighty promises of your Master, you 
would tear the selfishness out of your life 
fling it beneath your feet and trample it in 
the dust and then soaring aloft on the 
mighty pinions of abounding faith, you 
would cry Father here I am and all that 
thou hast given me. Use me and use it 
for thy glory. I will be and do and give 
as thou hast told thy child in thy word. 
Then your Father, clasping you in the 



THE MONEY QUESTION. 



45 



embraces of his providences and love, would 
inly speak to thee and tell thee my child 
it is well that thou art come. I will take 
care of thee henceforth and forever. " I 
will bless thy going out and thy coming 
in. I will bless thee in thy basket and in 
thy store." Go on in my training school 
(the primary department of which is the 
world, the senior department of which is 
my church) and work, and get, and give, 
and remember as thou givest: "The lib- 
eral deviseth liberal things: and by liberal 
things shall he stand." Be not puny and 
petty but be large, charitable, mighty. 
The more like me my children grow the 
more I love them and the more will I use and 
honor them. See my will mirrored in yon- 
der pond and the little brook that babbles 
by. The pond is full for there has been a 
freshet. 

The pond saith to the brooklet, " see 
how big and broad I am becanse I do not 
spend my waters in flowing away like you." 
Next day the sun comes out, evaporation 
sets in, and the pond begins to shrink; and 
next day another scorcher comes and it 
shrinks still more, till in a short time, noth- 
ing of the pond remains. Then the little 
crystal brook lifts up its voice and sings, 
" ponds may come, and ponds may go, but 
I flow on forever." And like to this crys- 
tal stream is the life of Him who is supplied 
from the spiritual founts of God. 

If the best things could have been pro- 
cured by money, Jesus would never have 
said, "beware of covetousness, for a man's 
life eonsisteth not in the abundance of the 
things he possesseth." God's 'greatest 
gifts are not for sale. The grandest bless- 
ings of nature are all free from air to sun- 
light. 

There have been various kinds of ages. 
The shepherd age, the agricultural age, 
the architectural age, and the age of art ; 
but this is the age of Mammon. It is nec- 
essary, therefore, for some one amid the 
stress and strain for wealth to lift up a 
voice that will echo and re-echo round the 
world, " Beware of covetousness which is 
idolatry," "for a man's life eonsisteth not 
in the abundance of the things which he 



possesseth." Health, happiness, intelli- 
gence, an easy conscience, a noble charac- 
ter, and felicitious destiny cannot be bought 
with money. They may all be blighted 
with money. A false idea, a wrong con- 
ception, a bad use of money dissipates and 
degrades and damns its victims as much 
as drunkenness, debauchery, suicide, or 
murder. The man who hopes to gain 
peace and heaven with money, will hear 
the voice of retribution crash over him just 
as Simon Magus the Sorcerer did, saying, 
" Thy money perish with thee, because thou 
hast thought that the gift of God may be 
purchased with money." 

The Golden Rule must be dearer to us 
than the golden calf. Millionaires have 
more baggage than they need to carry. 
Who wants to conduct a multi-million dol- 
lar establishment for clothes and board? 
The Saviour looked on too much money as 
a skillful traveler looks on too much lug- 
gage. Fie seldom used money himself, and 
told His disciples when He was sending them 
out on their great missionary tour, " Provide 
neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your 
purses," and Peter afterwards wrote his 
friends that " the trial of their faith was 
much more precious than of gold that per- 
isheth, though it be tried with tire, might 
be found with praise, and honor, and glory 
at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Amen. 



Prayer After sermon. 

We rejoice in Thee, our Father, be- 
cause Thou art so rich. We rejoice 
with Thee because the riches of the sea 
and the land and the sky are Thine. 
We are glad because Thou art the pro- 
prietor of all laws and forces. We 
are delighted because no great riches 
nor power of wealth is in the rightful 
proprietorship of Satan. 

We would then have reason to fear 
him, but we are enraptured to think 
that he and his are under Thy control. 
The immense powers of sin are all con- 
trolled by Thee. Thou dost say to them, 



46 



THE MONEY QUESTION. 



thus far and no farther. And the pos- 
sessions of sinners are all owned by 
Thee. The houses and lands, and banks 
and bonds and capitalized stocks of the 
proud and the haughty rich are all 
Thine. 

Thou hast loaned these to them a 
little while, and they shall have to set- 
tle with Thee for them. And we bless 
Thee also, our Father, for the riches 
Thou hast entrusted to some of Thy 
children. And we thank Thee for the 
high and noble design Thou hast in giv- 
ing them riches. We thank Thee 
it is not that they may spend these 
riches on themselves ; but that they 
may learn to help others with them, 
and so become in generosity and liber- 
ality like Thee. Thou wouldst not have 
Thy dear children mean and puny and 
miserly. Thou wouldst not have us 
worldly and selfish ; but Thou wouldst 
have us large-hearted, liberal-minded 
and abounding in generosity. And so 
an experience teaches us that the more 
we give to Thee the more Thou dost 
give to us. 

And the more we do for others the 
more Thou clost do for us. And we do 
sincerely thank Thee that Thy giving to 
us and our giving to others is all a part of 
Thy great plan to raise us up from selfish- 
ness and lift us up to that large liberal- 
ity where we shall really feel "it is 
more blessed to give than to receive." 

And so confidently we commit our- 
selves to Thee. We also consecrate all 
we have to Thee. And we implore Thee 
to bless us and ours with remarkable 
increase. Bless us in our professional 
and business and domestic duties. Bless 
us when we go out and when we come 
in. Bless us in our basket and in our 
store. 

And while Thou dost bless and honor 



us in all our temporal affairs, we pray 
Thee assist us most especially in acquir- 
, ing eternal riches. May we have woven 
into every fibre of our character those 
, imperishable gems of grace and good- 
ness that never take wings and fly 
away. Bless us then with the full 
i wealth of faith, hope, love, joy, peace, 
gentleness, meekness, temperance and 
' charity. May we not have these in 
: meagre measure, but may they be in us 
I and abound. May the full choir of the 
\ graces live in us and sing through us. 
j For these are real riches and endure 
: forever. Let them live largely and 
j sing powerfully. May they sing through 
. us, so that the world shall hear them ; 
! so that the sinners shall be arrested by 
them and so charmed that they too shall 
begin to sing. And, oh Lord, bless the 
sinner ; the man who is missing the 
mark; the man who is spending his 
money for that which is not bread and 
his labor for that which satisfieth 
not. Bring him to his senses. Bring 
him to his Saviour that he may give him 
the germ of everlasting riches. And 
also bless this city and this State and 
the entire sisterhood of States. May 
they all learn not only how to make 
money, but also how to use it. May 
the people use money not to ruin them- 
selves, but to save others. May this 
nation not only be the great money- 
making and monej T -managing nation, 
but also the great money-giving, world- 
lifting nation. To this end bless the 
Word that has been spoken. Like leaven 
may it spread till all the land shall feel 
and hear the Saviour saying beware of 
covetousness, for a man's life consisteth 
not in the abundance of the temporal 
things he possesseth, and unto Thee, 
Father, Son and Spirit, shall all honor 
and riches and glory be ascribed now 
and here and there and forever. Amen. 



The Bacchante* 



" Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven 
image, the similitude (likeness) of any female. " — Deut. 4:15, 16. 



THERE has been excitement in Bos- 
ton of late. Boston has a Public Lib- 
rary worth $3,000,000. The situation 
thereof is choice, the collection of 
books large, the architecture solid, the 
ornamentation elaborate, the admirers 
many. The Library is the product of Chris- 
tianity, working through the public schools. 
It is the pride and honor of the people. Every 
citizen of intelligence surveys this fountain 
of knowledge with gratitude. Gratitude to 
God. Gratitude to man. Gratitude to 
such men as Joshua Bates, Robert 
C. Winthrop, Edward Everett and Alex- 
ander H. Rice. It is a monument to 
and a fountain for the intellectual 
life of the Capital of Massachusetts. 
It is a tribute to the memory of such poets 
as Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Haw- 
thorne, Holmes and Whittier ; to such 
legalists as Greenleaf, Story and Parsons ; 
to such scholars as Prescott, Parkman, 
Motley and Palfrey, and to such orators as 
Webster, Garrison and Phillips. It is an 
honor to the dead, a joy to the living, and 
should be a blessing to posterity. 

It is not only Bostonians who take a 
wholesome pride in this literary centre. 
But the citizens of all Massachusetts are 
proud of it also. Visitors from all parts of 
the state do not feel that they have seen 
Boston till they have seen the Library. 
People from all parts of the Republic 
write "Library" down beside "Bunker 
Hill " as one of the chief attractions they 
should visit. Not only do students come 
from various points of our own ; but also 
from other lands. Europeans, Asiatics, 
Africans, Australasians resort to th is accum- 
ulation of printed thought, as Americans 
now visit the British Museum in London, 



or the Louvre in Paris, or the Ufrizi in 
Florence, or the Vatican Library of Rome. 
In the light of such facts, our Public Lib- 
rary is of such imposing importance as to 
assume a religious significance. If its influ- 
ence were not related to the welfare of the 
soul it would have no place in this pulpit. 
But next to the pulpit, the school and the 
press it is the most powerful factor in our 
civic life. The crowds that now go there 
will be increased by ever augmenting pop- 
ulation and learning. The stream of read- 
ers is almost constant now. That stream 
will swell in ratio with the increasing cur-' 
rent of population and of letters. The 
tastes, habits, character and destiny of men 
are formed by what they read and see. 
No apology for speaking from this place 
on this question is therefore needed. The 
Library is more than a Mecca, more than 
a Benares, a Taje or Alhambra. It is a 
fountain of accumulated intellect. It is a 
magazine containing free ammunition for the 
student, merchant, lawyer, physician, jour- 
nalist, manufacturer, farmer, housekeeper, 
preacher. Ammunition for every citizen 
who wants to join tlie procession of pro- 
gress and fight the Good Fio-hf. Xo mat- 
es & ^ o 

ter under what imagery you survey it, 
Arsenal, Fountain, Magazine, it stands 
forth as a superb institution of valuable 
and vital importance to the progress of 
our people. Xext to the Church of God 
it stands sacredly dedicated to the welfare 
of our citizens. It is to instruct your 
minds, cultivate your tastes, refine, elevate 
and inspire your hearts. Its mission is 
to do good, only good, and that continu- 
ally. Founded for this purpose, built up for 
this purpose, it is to be continued with, 
this in view. It is not dedicated to the 



*After this discourse the vast congregation voted to request the withdrawal of the statue, and so since then, in compli- 
ance with the request, Bacchante has been taken doivn, thank God ! 



52 



THE BACCHANTE. 



welfare of Art; but to the welfare of the 
people. Such is the splendid mission of 
the Public Library. 

But whilst you and thousands of others 
were looking out with a deep and quiet 
pride upon this, your child, a proposition 
comes that wounds your feelings and dis- 
turbs your peace. It is the proposal to 
place a nude figure of the mother of Pari- 
sian harlots in the very heart of this sacred 
spot. Those in authority to whom the 
proposal was made at first properly refus- 
ed admission to this statue of the drunken 
strumpet. The best Bostonians breathed 
more freely, and the impertinent proposal 
was by the purest of our people considered 
disposed of satisfactorily. They thanked 
God that the art critics and Library Trus- 
tees had at least some sense of decency 
and propriety, and they continued to be- 
lieve that their Trustees would never con- 
sent to set up a Bacchanalian harlot as the 
genius of Boston's literary light. But in 
this alas they were disappointed. Some 
so-called patrons of art induced those 
entrusted with authority to look upon 
the full-sized harlot herself. They 
looked, they listened. They were snared 
and taken by her artistic blandish- 
ments. The strange transformation in the 
minds of the Art Commissioners and Trus- 
tees of the Library illustrate the lines of 
Pope: 

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien 
As to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
Yet seen too oft familiar with her face, 
We lirst Endure, then Pity, then Embrace." 

And so the horrible creature has been 
put on a pedestal in the centre of the cen- 
tral court. The living harlot that the ath- 
eistic revolutionists set up in France to be 
admired and adored as the genius of lib- 
erty and patroness of freedom was not 
nearly so much out of place as the Bac- 
chante. Many a giddy young girl in her 
ignorant innocence, while gazing on Bac- 
chante, will conclude that the best way to 
become honored is to become a gleeful, 
drunken prostitute. The setting up of 



this seductive image of evil, posed upon 
wine-inspired toe, is treason of the vilest 
order. It is not merely petty treason nor 
constructive treason, but it is high treason ; 
treason to the city, treason to the state, 
treason to the country, treason to the world, 
treason to virtue, treason to Almighty 
God ! ! ! This startling statement less 
enlightened and thoughtful and penetrat- 
ing minds will call extreme, extravagant 
and unmerited. We make no such state- 
ments on this platform. Every assertion 
is taken up, analyzed, diagnosed, dissected 
and surveyed in the varying lights and 
shades of nature, history, philosophy, 
science and the Word of God before it is 
here expressed. And when once it is clear 
that anything is wrong, this pulpit cannot 
be muzzled, nor bribed, nor gagged by the 
decisions of Art Commissioners, Library 
Trustees, public censure, journalistic vitup- 
eration, nor anything else on God's foot- 
stool. And let it be remembered that we 
are neither excited nor prejudiced nor in- 
fluenced in the least by anything that any- 
body has said or written about this insult 
to the virtue and intelligence of Boston. 

We do our own reading, praying and 
thinking and with God's help we will do 
our own speaking and take the con- 
sequences. 

And now let us see the reasons we take 
so strong a stand against the nude Pari- 
sian Harlot. 

First — because all "nude" human art is 
a disgusting impertinence, and a vile vul- 
garity. When Adam and Eve were naked 
in Eden, "God Himself made coats of skins 
and clothed them." Ever since then de- 
cent people have kept their clothes on. 
And it is only Satan's servants that try to 
throw them off. Xudity is unnatural to civ- 
ilized and Christianized humanity. A nude 
human being has no place in society. If 
one of you should walk down the street to- 
morrow morning in a nude condition you 
would be arrested as a shameless lunatic and 
you ought to be. It is true there are races that 
continue in a nude or semi-nude condi- 
tion. The black fellows of Australia. 



THE BACCHANTE. 



53 



The lowest Yesso races of Japan and 
several races of the tropics. But these 
are the lowest specimens of human beings. 
What Massachusettsensian wants to face 
that way ? What American wants to turn 
his back on the bright beaming future and 
his face to the darksome dreary past ? And 
yet that is the " zeit geist " — the drift and 
drive of what is known as " Nude Art." 

It is an old world, old time backward 
movement. They had it abundantly in 
Egypt. They had it lavishly in Assyria. 
They cultivated it most magnificently in 
Greece. They projected it voluptuously 
in Rome. But all these " Nude Art " 
nations have perished. But you say is not 
"Nude Art" found in nations that still 
exist. Yes it is found in Japan, China, 
India, Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. 
But there is very little of it in the purest 
and most progressive nations of Europe. 
But little of it in Germany, Holland, Den- 
mark, Sweden, England and Scotland. In 
fact in proportion as a people become pure 
and progressive they discard it. In pro- 
portion as they become corrupt and stag- 
nant, they adopt it. It has only crept in 
among the most virtuous and progressive 
people by some such stealthy method as it 
is creeping in among us. It is creeping in 
among us by the intrusive impudence of 
the few and not by the virtuous voice of 
the many. If the people of Boston had 
had a voice (with all the facts fairly before 
them) they would as soon have voted for a 
statue sacred to the Devil as to that Par- 
isian strumpet. But the people were not 
consulted. It was done on the sly. And 
alas, oh ! my people, it was done partly on 
the Sabbath. Alas ! Alas ! Brothers has 
it come to this that in grand old puritan 
Boston, a number of men can have the de- 
moniac audacity to come together on 
God's holy day inside the precincts of our 
intellectual fane and discuss the propriety 
of setting up the image of a wine bibbing 
Courtesan to be looked at — and admired 
and imitated by our people. "Oh tell it 
not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of 
Askelon, lest the uncircumcised rejoice." 



Tell it not ye spirits in the ears of the 
great departed patriots who by their virtues 
and learning laid the foundations of our 
prosperities. Tell it not ye angels before 
the throne of that God who has been so 
gracious and so good to Bostonians in the 
past. 

Speak of it not anywhere ! Tell it not 
for shame ! ! Let not New York nor Phil- 
adelphia nor Baltimore nor any of our 
sister cities hear of this lamentable dishonor 
and shame that has clandestinely been 
thrust upon the dear old Mother of Ameri- 
can Cities. Oh Boston ! Boston !! Boston !!! 
Angels weep for thee, for a harlot has been 
placed in thy heart for thee to admire, 
imitate and adore. 

Second — But again this terrible outrage 
is fearfully augmented by the mission that 
as the New World we have to the old. God 
tried the human races in the pasture lands 
of the old world. This trial was unsatis- 
factory. Humanity failed to develop the 
highest type of virtue, civilization and re- 
ligion. There was not a civil, ethical, 
spiritual paradise in any old world conti- 
nent. It looked as though humanity had 
under most inviting auspices proved a 
failure. Every kind of tyranny, corrup- 
tion, oppression and villany prevailed in the 
lands of the old world. That old world be- 
came drunk with iniquity and intoxicated 
with crime. It looked as though God 
would have to wipe the earth as a man 
wipes a dish and try some other sort of 
moral being who would love and serve 
Him. But human beings did not perceive 
the depth of the Divine Reservation plan. 
God in love had in reserve this new world. 
He hid it wisely and well behind the Atlan- 
tic and Pacific billows till the time was ripe. 
He prepared a people for the prepared 
place. He did not permit Columbus to 
discover these fruitful domains of the North. 
He did not allow Romanism to explore and 
finally settle here. He had His own chosen 
few whom he had nursed in the cradle of 
trial in Holland and England. These were 
the Pilgrim Fathers with the Gospel in 
their hearts and the Bible in their hand. 



54 



THE BACCHANTE. 



With these seeds of liberty in their hearts. 
With obedience to God and law graven 
into every fibre of their being. These 
were the men whom God used to open up 
this virgin soil to liberty and the love of 
justice. These are the men who have left 
their impress upon every part of this coun- 
try. These are the men who were the first 
to throw off the yoke of the foreign foe. 
And these were the men who looked upon 
their children and prayed and hoped that 
they would nourish and cherish the holy 
habits, customs and memories of their 
fathers. That these children would con- 
tinue the good work their fathers had be- 
gun. And that till the last note of recorded 
time their children's childrens' children 
would continue to promote that "right- 
eousness that exalteth a nation" and slay 
that "sin which is a reproach to any 
people." Oh Children of the Pilgrims and 
Puritans how long would it require your 
Forefathers to deliver that library on 
Copley Square from the obloquy and dis- 
grace that now pose triumphantly and 
gleefully within it. Ladies and gentlemen, 
brethren and sisters, is it not strange that 
men charged with a duty on the proper dis- 
charge of which the welfare of so many 
promising people depend should prove so 
perversely stupid ? If the authorities of the 
library had only looked over the history of 
the nations of the earth ! If they had only 
stopped to consider the nature of humanity! 
If they had only contemplated the mission 
of our people to the rest of the world. 
If they had only remembered that 
- this republic is the ultimatum to 
•the human race. If they had only 
remembered there is no other great land 
discoverable on the planet and that— if we 
fail, the world fails. Surely, surely 
they would have scorned to set up this 
mother of harlots to grieve the best Am- 
erican citizens, to shock the most loyal and 
devoted American patriots, to mislead the 
myriads of beautiful student youth who are 
now being moulded and insjm-ed by what 
they have come to Boston to see. 

It is true that on the part of 



rich, thoughtless, and luxurious Am- 
ericans there is an astonishing desire to 
adopt old world abominations. The 
daughters of our godless millionaires, marry 
Dukes and Earls and Lords, not because 
they get better men, but because they obtain 
empty titles. They love to be called 
Duchess this, and Lady that! Ameri- 
can capital by matrimonial alliances or mis- 
alliances is taken across the ocean to gratify 
female vanity. It is a wedlock of the 
daughters of Israel to the Lords of the 
Philistines, for the sake of the worthless 
honors of Dagon. As a great people we 
perhaps can afford this for honestly our best 
people are not our richest. Hut when we 
come to crave the licentious Art of the old 
world. When we come to use what is 
worst in that Art to represent the tastes of 
our people. When we come to set up the 
most libidinous and lecherous forms of 
lubricity for people to stare at, emulate 
and imitate, then we are committing a 
crime which no sober statesman can excuse, 
no thoughtful jurist tolerate ; no pure pat- 
riot palliate and no scholarly Christian 
condone. This brings us to our third 
point in regard to this statue of the Pari- 
sian Mother of Harlots. That point 
is this, that it is not only "Nude 
Art" but it is the very worst kind 
of "Xude Art." It is the unclad figure of 
a women and the worst of the worst 
women. The beauty of outline. The 
exquisiteness of poise. The gleefulness 
of pose. The charmfulness of smile. The 
speciousness of the art only makes the 
statue all the more dangerously seductive. 
It is just such a statue as some confirmed 
thoughtless, drunken, leerful, theatrical old 
rascal who spends his time in feeding his 
basest passion nightly at the Black Crook 
erected next door to hell, might be ex- 
pected to set up. 

Such men are brazen faced enough to 
do anything the devil inspires them to do. 
They have the assurance and impudence of 
Satan himself, and such an outrage might 
be expected from them. But that a num- 
ber of (what we in the nature of things 



THE BACCHANTE. 



55 



would be led to consider) intelligent gen- 
tlemen of character and taste chosen to 
represent the virtue and intelligence of 
this "no mean city," should do such a thing 
is what surprises, stuns, nauseates and 
distresses us." 

Look at the situation. Here we have in 
Boston eight or nine millions of dollars 
wasted annually on drunkenness and its 
necessary concomitants. The city gets 
some 1900,000 back by way of licenses. 
So then, to speak moderately, we spend 
seven millions on slaughtering the people, 
to get less than one million as compensa- 
tion for the nefarious butchery. There 
are thousands upon thousands of once 
beautiful young lives being ruined daily 
by what this statue represents. It repre- 
sents two things : drunkenness and licen- 
tiousness. Are there no,t enough of these 
in Boston ? Let the inhabitants of yonder 
eity jail speak. Let the tenants of yonder 
Island prison lift up their voice. Let the 
judges who impose penalties for these two 
leading crimes be heard. Let the sunken 
eyes, the pallid features, the broken 
health, the bleeding hearts, the shattered 
nerves, the poisoned blood, the fevered 
brains, the ruined hopes, the squandered 
fortunes, the blasted homes of all these 
licentious drunkards of Boston speak. Aye, 
more ; let the faded virtue of those once 
virgin flowers; let the anguished spirits of 
those forsaken wives; the famished look 
of those neglected children ; let the widow 
and the orphans also be heard. Let their 
sighs salute the Bacchante, and they will 
fan her with a breath as hot with burning 
grief as the sirocco of the glaring desert. 
Let their groans salute the Bacchante, and 
their united moan will be like the mutter- 
ing of an awful storm or the wailing ■ of an 
anguished sea. Let their tears fall upon 
the Bacchante, and they will bathe her 
with a scalding brine not found in the 
fountain that plays harmlessly at her feet. 
Let these muffled, choking, hot voices 
speak. Let these trickling briny tears lift 
up their voice. Let them unite and speak 
the truth. Let them address Bacchante in 



all her frolicsome glee as she stands on tip- 
toe joy, representing the ecstacy of wine. 
Let them speak. Listen ! ! Lo they say, 
ah ! we were once like thee. Once we 
were frolicsome and full of intoxicated de- 
light. We hoped for nothing but contin- 
ued joy. We too have held our babies in 
our arms and before them also held the 
tempting bacchanalian fruit. We too have 
been on tip-toe smile. We too have felt 
the thrill of intoxicated and licentious de- 
light. We too have had our admirers and 
our times of glowing, gleeful triumph. But 
it was only as if for an hour. It is now 
all past. Bitter memories and the ashes of 
deceit are all that now remain to us. The 
beauty has gone from our cheek; the 
light from our eye ; the smile from our 
face ; the lissomness from our form. Dis- 
ease has taken the place of health ; sorrow 
the place of joy; despair the place of hope, 
and hate the place of love. Ah! no good 
to us remains. We are corrupted within 
and forsaken without. Poverty, shame, 
disgrace, agony are ours. A great army 
are we, but there is none to relieve our 
distresses; none to assuage our griefs ; none 
to chase away our despair. That despair 
sits like a horrid raven with his "beak 
within our heart and his form above our 
door." We ask the raven to depart, but 
quoth the raven, " Xevermore." Ah ! my 
hearers, I see this great army of wrecked, 
ruined, despairful men, women and or- 
phans rising in their misery and approach- 
ing the Bacchante. They fill all the court- 
yard. They fill all the Library. They 
till all Copley Square. They overflow into 
the side streets, and as they put their sad 
feelings and dire experiences into one wild 
wail and their dominating thoughts into 
one shriveled, trembling arm, they lift that 
arm, they utter that wail, and the one ges- 
ture points to the statue and says, It is 
what you stand for that has impoverished 
us. It is what you represent that has 
blanched our cheeks, withered our hopes, 
ruined our reputations, destroyed our for- 
tunes, mangled our character and damned 
our souls. It is the drink and the licen- 



56 



THE BACCHAXTE. 



tiousness that m the spasmodic lit of glee 
you here magnify that has brought hell 
into our hearts and all our woes into our 
lives. And yet here you laugh and dance 
in our blood and on our bones, and over 
our doom. 

My hearers, it is needless to summon 
witnesses. We might summon billions 
from the Old World and millions from the 
new and trillions from hell itself, and they 
would all testify as these poor deluded 
Bostonians do. They would all testify 
that Bacchus did it ; that licentiousness 
did it, and that the two great evils of the 
earth are the victimizing vices that the 
statue honors and celebrates. And so you 
see, my hearers, there could be no figure 
set up in Boston's Public Library that 
would so completely represent the worst 
there is in the world as the very figure 
that now stands there. The Commission- 
ers on Art and Trustees might have offer- 
ed a prize for a plan, and given out a con- 
tract with a prize at one end and a prize 
at the other end, for a statue that would 
most surely woo and win men and women 
over to that which the records of human 
history prove destroys the greatest num- 
ber of men and women, and they could 
not have found a more fitting representa- 
tive than they have. If they had raised a 
million of money and set out in squads to 
search Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia 
and America all over for the most fascinat- 
ing patroness of the most killing crimes, 
they could not have secured one that 
would represent, distinguish and honor 
those crimes so completely and danger- 
ously as the one they have selected. And 
so it has come to this in Boston. Vice is 
to be set up and glorified ; virtue is to be 
passed by in scorn or in silence. The 
worst vices are to be memorialized and put 
into the statuesque and picturesque lest the 
people forget to destroy themselves. We 
have seen devil worshippers in the Orient. 
But we never expected to see them in Bos- 
ton. Some of you may say, you are tak- 
ing this matter altogether too seriously. 
You are making too much out of it. Xot 



at all, Sir. You say that, Sir, because you 
don't think, or because you don't know, or 
because you don't care. We think, know 
and care, and we know this, that the 
statues of a people are indications of what 
they admire. The statues of Buddha in 
Japan and China show that those people 
love the doctrines of Buddha. The 
statues to Reubens and Michael Angelo in 
Europe show that Europeans honor painting 
and sculpture. The statues to Nelson and 
Wellington in Britain show that the British 
admire courage and valor. The statues to 
Washington, Lincoln and Grant in Amer- 
ica show that Americans love freedom and 
union. And the statue of the drunken 
prostitute in the Public Library declares 
that Bostonians love drunkenness and licen- 
tiousness. Alas ! Alack ! that it should 
come to this in our time ; that the city we 
have preferred to all others should set up 
an inebriated prostitute in our most re- 
splendent literary fane and say by that act 
to all the world this ! this ! represents our 
tastes; prostitution and drunkenness are 
what we admire and adore. 

Was there no noble, historic American 
whose statue might have been placed there 
as an example pointing in the right direc- 
tion. Was there no Martha Washington, 
no Lucy Webb Hayes; no Harriet Beecher 
Stowe whose presence in bronze would 
have been an inspiration instead of a de- 
gradation to our people ? Was there no 
Samuel Francis Smith who has lifted the 
land by his 

"My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 
Of thee I sing" ? 

Amid all the departed poets, authors, 
statesmen and merchants of Massachusetts 
was there not one worthy to take this 
place of honor instead of this loathsome 
creature'? Ah, truly a great and grave 
crime has been committed when what is 
right is buried, and when what is wrong 
is crowned ; when what is noble is forgot- 
ten, and when what is vile remembered. 



THE BACCHANTE. 



57 



The Library is a strategic point, a dis- 
tributing centre. It stimulates the thought 
of the city and fires the ambition of the 
state ; through its ministries the past lives 
in the present. Through its services the 
intellectual giants leap into life and speak 
to us again. As in those accumulations of 
ages, the coal fields, is a Titanic strength 
that finds its way into rushing steam cars 
and flying spindles, so in this collected intel- 
lectual prowess of the centuries lie the 
forces that set men's minds, hands and 
hearts to working in multiplied and mut- 
ual endeavors. The Library is focused 
light — life power — which when harnessed 
to a mass of thinking, progressive men, 
drives them as the great turbine wheels 
that illuminate Buffalo are driven by Nia- 
gara. As the rivers that feed the mighty, 
thundering cataract come from many parts 
of the vast Northwest, so the books that 
form our Library come from many parts of 
the world and here concentrate their light. 
They speak to us again by such persons on 
astronomy as Galileo and Newton and 
Herschel; by such heroes in geology as 
Miller and Lyall and Murchison ; by such 
veterans in history as Turner and Pal- 
grave, Foster and Froude, Mahon and 
Massey, Bancroft and Prescott; by such 
masters of statesmanship as the two Chat- 
hams, Charles J. Fox, Robert Peel, 
Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy 
Adams — departed poets, scientists, artists, 
novelists, philosophers, orators, speaks out 
again through our Library. They are the 
great fire pillars of mankind. The world's 
history is built upon these pillars like a 
mighty bridge whose arch begins in Eden 
and ends in the Apocalypse. The Christ 
is the keystone of that arch. And God 
moves mankind from time to time upward 



to eternity upon it. The Library furnishes 
the literature that maps the way. What 
a pity it is that in such a place vice gets 
more than piety ; that there are those who 
" sanction vice and hunt decorum down." 
What a pity it is so few are found to " lash 
the vice and failures of the age," for " vice 
repeated, like the wandering wind, blows 
dust in other's eyes to hide itself." And 
over all such vicious scenes there comes 
the crushing curse of Almighty God. 

Again and again the Israelites fell into 
the most shocking sins by doing precisely 
what has been done in Boston. And as 
surely as they fell into sin they fell into 
sorrow. They imported the bacchanalian 
goddesses of the heathen about them. 
They turned to their licentious practices. 
They abandoned Jehovah. They followed 
the strange female images of Ashtoreth. Ash- 
toreth was the Bacchante of their time. 
And when they imported Ashtoreth and set 
her up and gave her the homage of their 
life. Then the thunder dropped. Then 
the hour was struck. Then the God of 
Heaven, insulted by the image of debauch- 
ery set up in place of Himself, struck the 
nation, till it reeled and fell and lay sod- 
den in its guilty gore — a by- word and re- 
proach on the earth. That God still lives. 
We Americans are his new Israelites ; His 
new chosen people ; His people whom He 
is trying under new conditions. We are 
cut off from the crimes of the Old World. 
We have been having the best times of 
any nation on the earth. We have 
flourished more than any nation ever did 
before us. Here God has in the most 
marked manner been blessing his new 
chosen people in this new and large 
Canaan. But if we are going to crown 
vice, if we are going to bring in images 



&8 



THE BACCHANTE. 



that represent the worst crimes, then that 
God who destroyed his ancient people for 
idolatry will destroy us. His blessing shall 
be withdrawn. He will leave us to our 
sins. And they will devour us with the 
tongues of ever-gnawing flame. The warn- 
ing of the text is at this time in order. Oh, 
that all Boston might heed it, and tear 
from its pedestal the Bacchic idol, lest the 
Almighty Father be forced by our sins to 
smite us with a curse. " Take ye therefore 
good heed unto yourselves : lest ye cor- 
rupt yourselves and make you a graven 
image : the similitude (or likeness) of 
any female." 



Prayer Before Sermon, 

Our Blessed Father we have reason to 
rejoice in Holiness. Holiness in Thy moun- 
tains, rivers and seas. Holiness in Thy 
sun, moon and stars. Holiness in Thy 
Heaven of Heavens. Holiness in Thy heart 
of hearts. Holiness in Thy natural and moral 
attributes. Holiness in Thy word, Thy 
Spirit, Thy church. Holiness in all Thy 
wonderous Arorks and glorious ways. It is 
because of this Holiness of Thine that we 
can love, trust and obey Thee. 

It is because of this, Thy Holiness, that 
all the vast universe can rely upon Thee 
and be ever safe and strong. It is this 
great element in Thy nature upon which 
Thine infinite excellencies depend. And as 
it is Thy Holiness that commends Thee to 
us ; so it is our Holiness that must com- 
mend us to Thee. Thou canst not toler- 
ate sin within us. Thou hast always shown 
Thy indignation against iniquity. Nations 
and individuals have been swept from the 



earth because of their impurities. Purity 
is the conserving force in Thy people. 

Therefore, oh most pure and lovely One, 
make us pure like Thyself. Destroy all sin 
within us and around us. Sin is the 
attraction that is worse than Satan, for if 
there had been no sin there had been no 
Satan, no sorrow, no woe. But sin is 
the source of every evil. Therefore slay 
our sin. Slay the sin of our city. Thou 
hast greatly blest and honored this city. 
But alas this night, this city dishonors 
Thine and Thee. In the place where the 
people go for knowledge, sin sits gleefully 
enthroned. Virtue is neglected, but the 
symbol of the vilest sin is honored and 
set up for Thy people to admire. Oh our 
God, let not such treason to important 
trust prevail V Have mercy ! Oh God, 
have mercy ! ! And grant unto those 
charged with great responsibilities, great 
light that they may see the terrible evils 
that must come to any people who canon- 
ize crime, and apotheosize vice. 

May the offensive statue not stand. Let 
it be taken away from before the innocent 
eyes of our youth. Let our fountain of 
literary light be delivered from this curse. 
And henceforth may those in authority 
learn to set up symbols of goodness that 
the people may be stimulated to cling ten- 
aciously to Thine and Thee. 

To this end bless the words of truth to 
be spoken. Inspire the speaker and the 
speech. Let Truth triumph. Let error 
be cast down and the false image be cast 
out, and to Thee the Father Son and 
Spirit shall be all the praise. 

Amex. 



Monday Bargain Buyers 



u Bny of Me. " Rev. Ill : 18. 

41 Without Money and Without Price. " Isa. LV :1. 



THE world is full of bargain-sellers 
and bargain -buyers. 
Bargains in houses and lands. 
Bargains in food and clothing. 
Bargains in books and pictures. 
Bargains in labor and capital. 
Bargains in ornamentations and admin- 
istrations. 

On one side are the people who supply ; 
on the other side the people who consume. 
The world is a vast mart of exchange. The 
spirit of trading has seized the race. Some 
want to sell products of the soil ; others 
products of the sea. Some fabrics of the 
factory ; others emanations of the brain. 
Some labor; others capital. . Con- 
sumption is constantly going on, produc- 
tion ever going forward. Both move to- 
gether — one prepares for the other. 

There must be production or there 
could be no consumption. There must be 
consumption or there would be no need of 
production. They are inter -dependent 
until "co-ordinate jurisdiction and mutual 
subordination^ 

But it is not our purpose to launch out 
into the deep of this philosophy. That 
belongs to commercial economics. Our 
work is rather with Heavenly dynamics. 
Secular lenses are sometimes needed to 
see spiritual forces. These lenses show us 
that as there is much trading possible be- 
tween nation and nation, so there is much 
trading possible between earth and 
Heaven. Most people seem fond of good 
bargains. Boston merchants have discov- 
ered this. They advertise largely in Sun- 
day papers, columns on columns, pages on 
pages, folios on folios, all packed with bar- 
gains. The Sabbath comes. The Bible 
is forgotten. The design of the day is 
forgotten. The cry of the newsboy is 
heard. The vast ornamented newspaper 
full of bargains is brought in. The wor- 
ship of God is shut out. The wife 



wants bargains. The husband wants 
bargains. The children want bar- 
gains. The lodgers want bargains. Every- 
body wants bargains. That paper is 
read and re-read. The bargain counters 
are studied. The array of articles at half 
price is scrutinized. This is picked out, and 
that is marked down. The Sabbath seems 
too long ; Monday morning too short. 
Breakfast is hurried through ; prayers are 
forgotten. Boston and suburbs empty out 
their hunters. Cars are crowded. Streets 
are thronged. Rush, to the stores, is 
rapid. The counters swarm with human 
beings. All of them hunting for Bargains ! 
Bargains ! ! Bargains ! ! ! They elbow, 
crowd, press, push, shove and skip from 
place to place. Brains are busy. Hearts 
are busy. Arms, hands, eyes and feet are 
busy. They are all busy — a mighty, mot- 
ley host. But it is all on account of Bar- 
gains. The morning wears away. The great 
bargains inspected, the clerks teased, bar- 
gains bought, and the vast swelter- 
ing throngs gradually melt away in 
all directions, till the next great Hunt is 
announced next Sunday morning. There 
have been many famous Hunts announced 
in Assyria, and Greece, and Rome. Many 
magnificent Hunts in Germany and Eng- 
land; Hunts after lions, and bears, and foxes, 
and antelope, and deer. But there never 
was such a Hunt as this. This is a Woman's 
Hunt. This is a Hunt after hats and 
feathers, and ribbons and dresses, 
and furbelows, and laces, and trinkets, pots, 
pans, pins and needles, a terrific Hunt after 
all the things that women fancy and men 
admire. And is it not a pity that the fair 
Huntresses should be so deceived as to 
suppose that this is a profitable Hunt. 
They turn themselves into swarms of 
Huntresses and have to furnish all the ex- 
penses of the Meet. O ye Monday Morn- 
ing Huntresses, ye dearly pay for all the 



64 



310 XI) A Y BAR GAIX B TITERS. 



game. It is the most expensive game that 
ever entered your home. We have 
known of a man who lost a son to gain the 
carcass of a lion, but your little game costs 
you more than that. We have heard of a 
woman who lost a daughter to gain the 
dead carcass of a fox, hut your game costs 
you more than that. We have known a 
daughter who lost a lover to gain a de- 
ceiver, but your game costs you more 
than that. 

Let us see what it costs you. It probably 
costs you in mental and physical exertion 
more than anything else you buy. It 
costs you, all things considered, the vast 
sums paid the Sunday Papers for adver- 
tising. Hundreds of thousands of dollars 
have to be paid by the merchants out of 
the Hunters. But, oh, Boston Huntresses, 
this, though great from the financial stand- 
point, is scantily worth mentioning com- 
pared with the other most awful expenses 
you sustain. 

"Were each of you a harmless Diana go- 
ing forth with silver bow to hunt for deer 
in the sylvan woods, no words of warning 
would be needed from this place. But 
alas ! each of you is a guilty culprit going 
forth with your purses to capture destruct- 
ion. Xow you wince at this ! you think 
this extravagant ! some of you say in your 
hearts as I speak " that's one of the preach- 
er's exaggerations." Would that it were 
my friends, then would there be no need 
for pleading here. But it is a solemn 
statement made in the light of everlasting- 
law and eternal truth. I know you don't 
see it and that is why I'm going to show 
it. Let the divine sunshine in and you 
shall see it. You cannot see it in the light 
of worldly habits, nor in the light of sel- 
fish eonrp an ion ships. 

This sight is not within the 
reach of the mere natural thinker. Xo 
man has yet stood (save One) in the cen- 
ter of this universe and looked at the re- 
lated value of human actions. Xo man 
(save One) has lifted up his voice and 
spoken from the very heart of powers, and 
dominions, and principalities, and laws, and 
evolutions, and responsibilities, and des- 



tinies. But that One has spoken in such 
terms and tones as cannot be misunder- 
stood. It is the one business of this pulpit, 
to echo and re-echo That single Voice in 
regard to everything going on in this city. 

Xow let us see what That Voice says in 
regard to Monday Morning Bargain 
Hunting. You say. it says nothing regard- 
ing it. It says all that needs to be said 
about this and every other question re- 
lating to the welfare of our people. 

The Voice of Christ is the only Voice 
worth hearing in regard to such matters. 
And remember, when I say the Voice of 
Christ, I mean the Voice of the Bible. 
The Bible is the Word of God. The. 
Christ is the Word of God. Both are one. 
What the Bible says. He says. What He 
says, the Bible says, because they are indi- 
visible. In the light of that Bible there 
are a number of most serious counts against 
Monday Bargain Hunters. Hear them for 
your good. 

I. Count number one charges you with 
the violation of God's Holy Day. This is a 
most fearful charge. "Remember the Sab- 
bath Bay to keep it Hoi if is the most 
important Command in the old Testa- 
ment. In it lies every other Command. 
If you break th is Command you break all 
in a most inclusive sense. That Bay teas 
given that you might learn hoic to keep 
the other Commands. That you might 
be drawn away from self and sin ; that you 
might be lifted up out of narrow, selfish 
life ; that you might say to all concerns of 
earth, " stay here while I worship yonder 
that you might retire from business ambi- 
tions and thoughts and feelings ; that you 
might exclude the tangible and temporal 
and fading ; that you might say adieu to 
common events, common words, deeds and 
feelings ; that you might say adieu to Satan, 
sin, temptation and earthly sorrow, trials 
and troubles. 

That you might relax your hold of every- 
thing that perishes in the using, whether it 
be professional duties, domestic duties, or 
business duties. All such things are to be 
entirely laid aside. 

Then again, this day was given that 



MONDu t Y BAB GAIN B UYEES. 



65 



your higher self might be brought out, that 
your better nature should be cultivated. 

That your knowledge of God should be 
increased, and love to God augmented, that 
your mind should be refreshed with high 
and holy thoughts. 

That your heart should be renewed with 
sweet and pure affections. That your 
faith should take of the unseen, a firmer 
hold. That your hope should be tiling a 
little farther within the vail, that your joy 
should rise in ever- abounding billows of 
gratitude toward Heaven. 

That your love should grow deeper, 
higher, wider, like an ever-expanding sea. 
That your mental forces should train them- 
selves on Ideavenly themes. 

That your heart's affection should gather 
from the skies new aspirings. That your 
nerves, and veins, and arteries, and sinews, 
and muscles, and ligamental system should 
have refreshing rest. That all your being 
should have the profitable refinement of 
exhilarating and holy change. That you 
should be seen going to the sweet services 
of the uplifting sanctuary. That you 
should turn your feet, and eyes, and ears, 
and tongues, and spirits, all into the house 
of God. 

That you should there forget your woes 
and strangle your sorrows and your cares. 
That you there should hear and heed the 
truth teeming from the throne. 

That you there should join in laudation 
of your Father's love and your Saviour's 
pity, and your Holy Comforter's peace and 
power. 

That you there should feel the thrill and 
the ecstacy, and the glory of your loving, 
Almighty Father's care. That you should 
there taste and see that He is good, and 
that His mercy toward you forever doth 
endure. 

That you should there know by strong 
and blest experience, the heart- swelling 
rapture that comes to the real child of God 
"who drinks ever at the crystal fountains of 
His truth. That you should become so 
surcharged with the divine dynamics that 
in electric currents they would How forth 
on the perishing, throughout the week. 



That you should go on in the grand, good 
way, ever upward, ever onward, adding 
grace to grace, adding power to power, 
adding knowledge to knowledge, adding 
deed to deed, adding ascent to ascent, week 
by week until at length, by manifold and 
multiplex blessing, 3^011 should finally be 
fitted to leave the school below and join 
the university above. Ah ! beloved, this is 
the gracious and. glorious design of the 
Sabbath. This is why it is so important. 
This is why it is the key to the other com- 
mandments. This is why it should be 
sacredly used. This is why it appears a 
blest septinary cut off by a divine hand 
from the rest of time to lift you up toward 
God, "till you become fitted for the best 
places, and highest honors of all this uni- 
verse. 

What dreadful misfortune then has be- 
fallen you, Monday morning Bargain Hunt- 
ers ? What terrible insanity has seized 
you, that you should be so insane as to take 
this day and prostitute it,, and profane it, 
and violate it, and turn it into a common 
day, when you will practically say goodbye 
Bible, goodbye church, goodbye prayer 
and praise, goodbye Father, and Saviour, 
and Holy Spirit, goodbye all that's good. 
Welcome all that's worldly, welcome news- 
papers ; welcome bargain counters ; wel- 
come goods marked up and then marked 
down ; welcome worldly companions ; 
welcome worldly thoughts, and feelings, 
and ambitions, and profits ; welcome any- 
thing and everything that will free me 
from thoughts of God, and duty, and des- 
tiny, and give me a good Bargain Counter 
on Monday morning ! ! ! 

Ah, my dear sisters, has it come to this 
with you? You who were represented 
last at the cross, and first at the Sepul- 
chre; you who are represented by such an 
array of lovely womanhood all through the 
centuries. You for whom Jesus has done 
so much, and is doing so much. You, 
who have by the blessings that have come to 
you through the Sabbath, been emanci- 
pated from serfdom of heathen slavery. 
You who have been gifted with such strong 
intuitions ; such spiritual susceptibilities ; 



66 



MOXDA Y BAR GAIX B UYERS. 



such proclivities toward good, as leave most 
men far behind. 

Has it come to this that you can barter 
away the most glorious privileges of God's 
uplifting, instructing, inspiring day for the 
sake of a few cents of artificial discount on 
a few laces or ribbons, or for the sake of a 
few dollars of tricky discount on a few 
articles of dress ? 

My sisters, I appeal to your better 
selves. Think of the Sabbath joys you 
are missing. Think of the terrible example 
you are setting. Think of the young 
friends you are carrying down with you. 
Think of the old friends you are confirm- 
ing in the path of ruin. Think of the 
good you might be getting and the good 
you might be doing, if you would sacredly 
consecrate God's holy day to holy, 
Heavenly receiving and giving. That day 
would become a glass through which you 
would soon begin to see the immortals 
moving on the other shore. That day 
would soon be to you a telescope through 
which you could descry the stars of 
heroic and Heavenly history. That day 
would soon become a microscope through 
which you would discern the exquisite skill 
the inimitable completeness with which 
God deals out to you the most fitting 
blessings every second. 

That day would soon become to you a 
glorious conveyance, lifting you toward 
the Heavens and holding your heart in 
loving rapture beating toward its Father 
and its God. Ah, blessed Day ! Oh, glor- 
ious Day! We will no more take thy 
precious hours and spend them on 
fading fancies. We will no more take 
thy mighty minutes and devote them to 
frivolities. We will no more take thy 
loving seconds and weave them into webs 
of secularities. But we will take thee 
sweet, true Queen of Time to lift us up, 
to lead us on to God, to read His 
holy word, to sing His sweetest praise, 
to visit His holy temple, to meet His 
faithful people, to hear His wondrous 
word, to offer heartfelt prayer, to present 
all we have and are to that kindest Father 



who presents all He is and has to us. 
Amen. 

II. But furthermore, we must charge 
Monday morning Bargain Hunters not only 
with Sabbath breaking, but aho humanity 
breaking. The burglar who breaks into 
your house is a house-breaker. The 
deceiver who o-oes back on his agreement 
is a covenant breaker. But you Monday 
morning Bargain Hunters are humanity 
breakers. There is nothing so sacred on 
earth as humanity. 

No silver, gold, bonds, banks, stocks, 
ranks, fortunes, possessions equal in value 
humanity. Its possibilities are so vast. 
Its endowments so varied. Its destiny so 
sublime. Its improvability so boundless 
that human nature over-tops all other nat- 
ure. It is the apex. It is the crown. It 
is the end. For its sake God made all 
else. For its sake God gives all else. For 
its sake all Heaven is ever in motion. Ah, 
Humanity! Humanity!! Humanity!!! How 
Ave love thee — we belong to thee. We 
know thy tenderness, thy sensitiveness, thy 
expansibility. We know how thy nerves 
quiver, and thy heart throbs, and thy mind 
soars. 

Amid the Vtoral vrreckage of a icorld in 
ruins, Humanity thou art lovely still! 
Lovely even in thy distortion and thy tears! 
Lovely even in distraction and decay. 
Thou art lovety for the loveliness that 
God has put upon thee. As when we look 
upon some classic statue carven with all 
the grace of the master sculptor, rising from 
its entombment and its wreckage, we see 
the fine original lines still visible, though 
battered with many a defacement and 
discolored by long immurement. So, when 
we look upon thee, Humanity, thou art 
haggard, wrinkled, battered, broken and 
tarnished with long bondage ; but beneath 
the corrosion and the rust and dust we see 
those primal lines of loveliness that thy 
great Creator has drawn on thee. We 
must not deface nor disgrace thee more. 
Sin, Satan and inhumanity have already 
sadly damaged thee. And now thou art 
on the upward move. Xow thou art being- 
taken from thy long, dreary, defiling 



JfONDA V BARGAIN BUYERS. 



67 



dungeon. Now the forces of the Divine 
Artist begin to appear on thee. Now thy 
regeneration is going on. And going on 
under such auspices as that in thy restored 
state, thou will outshine by far thy primeval 
grandeur. The splendors of redemption 
have risen upon thee. 

And so thou art emerging daily to 
something better. Therefore let no hand 
press thee back, nor push thee down. Let 
no customs make a new scar upon 
thy rising form. And yet, my friends, 
alas ! amid all this upward, onward move- 
ment which we see about us, there 
rise up out of the new circumstances new 
enemies. These enemies do not intend to 
be such. They do not desire to hurt any- 
one. They have not set out with that in 
view. But it is an incidental and neces- 
sary consequence of Monday Morning Bar- 
gain Hunting. And in this their inno- 
cence lies our hope. Now you Bargain 
Hunters are asking how do we make a 
new raid on the welfare of humanity? 
Indeed, many of us are trying to elevate it. 
Many of us are members of churches and 
are esteemed the " salt of the earth" and 
"light of the world," and we refuse to be 
misrepresented. You shall not be mis- 
represented from this place, my sisters ; 
but by God's help you shall be represented. 

In addition to Sabbath breaking, I charge 
you with humanity breaking because of the 
following facts. Those bargains you pur- 
chase have to be sold at the lowest possi- 
ble profit; they have to be marked away 
down to take your bargain hunting eye. 
But the poor saleslady has to be marked 
away down also. She has inmajiy cases 
to be marked away down below the lining 
point. You ought to know what that may 
mean to a handsome young woman in a 
strange city. The bargain counters must 
be kept up; but if they are, the salesladies 
who are just as valuable in the sight of 
God, as you, have to be cut down. 

Have they no hearts? have they no feel- 
ings ? are they of no account? are they 
mere machines that are to be marked down 
to suit, your selfish convenience! Must 
they take three to seven dollars a week 



when they should have from seven to six- 
teen, to enable you rich and well-to-do 
■t r omen to go around and get bargains? Is 
this treating your sisters who are so noble 
as to undertake to: work for a. living in the 
right fashion ? Is this the way you would 
like to be treated if you were in their place? 
But this is not all. We must go farther 
back than the bargain counter to cee Jam 
Jar your ruin runs. We must go to the 
manufacturer's mill. That you may have 
bargains, the manufacturer must cut down 
his prices. Thai means a cut for the fac- 
tory hands. That means lower wages and 
longer hours for the makers of these fab- 
brics you call bargains, that you may be 
made richer. They must be made poorer, 
that you may out of your abundance buy 
cheap. They, out of their poverty, must 
sell their labor cheap; they must sell their 
health ; they must sell the brightness from 
their eyes ; the Hush from their cheeks; 
the strength from their nerves ; the vigor 
from their muscles ; the vitality from their 
blood, and even hope from their hearts 
that you may dress a little finer ; that you 
may have a little more luxury; that you 
may roll in a little more needless splendor ; 
that you may feed the fires of your vanity; 
that you may flit and flaunt a little more 
winsoirieiy. 

And you call this civilization ! And you 
name this humanity ! ! And you baptize 
this, better class, and higher life, and upper 
crust, and the like! ! ! 

God Almighty, help you to see that this 
is the lowest, most cruel, and most cursed 
barbarity that ever prevailed in Christian 
cities. It is the social plague of the age. 
It is the miasmic malady of the times. 
Away with it forever, and let us for the 
sake of our fellow-beings have pure living, 
and honest peace, and fair play to every 
toiler. 

III. And now we come to the cure for 
this selfish evil. Time permits not the 
portrayal of the cruel curse that selfishness 
is to the selfish person, and how bargain 
hunting, especially on Sunday and Mon- 
day, culti rates destructive selfis/mess. 
But just remember that every selfish streak 



68 



310 A Y BARGAIN B UYEBS. 



m you, is a streak of corruption. Every 
selfish motive is a whirlpool of desolation. 
Every selfish action a storm centre of dis- 
aster. Xow it is to drive this selfishness 
out of us that God cries, " Buy of me, buy 
of me, without money and without price." 

There are myriads of charterers crying 
all over this world, "buy of me." But they 
all want money, they all want price. All 
the way from the poor peanut vender to 
the pelf-preferring, praise-seeking preacher 
" Buy of me, buy of me," but I have my 
price, you cannot go into any store and get 
goods without price. Price ! Price ! ! 
Price ! ! ! is the world's great cry ! How 
impressive, how cheering it is to turn away 
from this and hear the richest, wisest, love- 
liest Voice in all this universe, saying, 
" Buy of Me, without money and without 
price." He wants to drive no sharp bar- 
gain with you. He is not trying to get the 
best of you at every turn. He wants you 
to " buy of Him " the best blessings " with- 
out money and without price." 

Ah ! ye Bargain Huntresses, hear this. 
Surely this is cheap enough for you. Is 
not this the best offer you ever had? The 
best for nothing? The best for the mind, 
the best for the soul, the best for the home, 
the best for society, the best fortius world, 
the best for the next world, all for nothing! 
Suppose Jordan-Marsh & Co. advertised 
next Sunday, that on next Monday all best 
goods in their establishment would be given 
away free, what a rush there would be? 
People would stand up all night around the 
store in the cold to get the first chance. 
They would come from all the suburbs, and 
all the state, and all the city and there would 
be a hurly-burly, pell-mell scramble for free 
goods ; there would be the most tremend- 
ous time ; you Bargain Hunters would be 
there in full force after hats, and feathers, 
and silks, and satins, and everything vou 
could lay your hands on ; you would run 
and strain, and cry, and push, and struggle, 
and a good many of you would likely get 
killed in the fight for free goods. The 
police would be paralyzed ; the Governor 
would probably have to call out the militia 
to beat back the crowds that would come 



roaring and surging on like the billows of 
an awful sea, all for free goods ! free goods ! ! 
God offers you tonight goods of infinitely 
greater value than any that ivere ever man- 
ufactured in France, or England, or 
America, or anywhere else beneath the 
sun. He has told me to tell you about them; 
He has stocked this universe with free 
goods for you. He is improving these 
goods all the time. Under His skill they 
grow better with age. These goods are so 
wonderful that they wax not old, neither 
time or eternity can abate their natural 
value, and beauty, and grandeur. TJiey are 
the very hind of goods you need; They are 
what you are crying for and doitt knov) 
it. You are clamoring for riches, and hon- 
or, and power, and peace, and prosperity, 
and happiness. These cannot be bought 
in any store in Boston. You want to be 
satisfied, but all the dry goods, and wet 
goods in America cannot satisfy you. But 
the living, loving, eternal Father offers 
goods that do' everlastingly gratify. He 
offers them to you fully and freely. He 
comes to you and says in the most wooing, 
winsome, tender manner, "My dear, blinded, 
mistaken child, you are very sinful, but here 
I have for you the gift of holiness. You 
are very guilty, but here I have for you the 
gift of pardon. You are very weary with 
long wandering, but here I have for you 
the gift of rest. You do not know much, 
but here I have for you the best Teacher. 
You are exceeding poor, but here I have 
for you exhaustless riches. You are ex- 
tremely sorrowful, but here I have for you 
eternal joys. 

You are truly heart-broken, my dear 
one ; but I have come to give you heart- 
healing. You are sadly Jblinded ; but I am 
come to enable you to see clearly. You 
have been terribly mangled ; but I am 
come all the way from Heaven to heal 
your bruises. You have been lone and long 
in vour gloomy prison ; but I am come to set 



MONT) A Y BAB GAIN B UYJSBS. 



69 



you free. You have been, my child, piti- 
lessly set upon by evil spirits, led on by 
Satan ; but I am come to crush Satan 
under your feet and to hurl him from your 
path like lightning from Heaven. 

You have been unjustly abused and 
unkindly treated by the harsher humani- 
ties ; but I am come and you shall have 
justice. Xone shall longer harm you. If I 
am "for you, who can be against you?" 
Search the deeps, the heights, the 
expanses, and let me see who dares to be 
against you. I wall protect you, and honor 
you, and guide you, through all this life. 
I will prepare you by various agencies — 
My Word, My Church, My Day, My 
Spirit — for the upper and better world. 
I will, when you are well prepared still stay 
with you and accompany you through the 
last sad scenes of death. I will stay with 
you and conduct you up through all 
spaces and past all stars into My own Par- 
adise. I will then give you a mansion 
such as never was built on earth ; a man- 
sion garrisoned with the flowers of peace ; 
a mansion girt with the immortelles of 
love ; a mansion built with the gems of 
joy; a mansion ornamented with everlast- 
ing and all-satisfying glories." Such is 
a meagre outline of the goods God this 
night offers you, " without money and 
without price." 

There ought to be a greater rush to- 
night for these greater gifts than if 
the news went out that the greatest 
Boston store was giving away all its 
stock without money or price. If you 
saw the way things stand in regard to your 
best interests, there would be. If you 
really could see how poverty-stricken you 
are, how exposed you are, how imprisoned 
you are, how attacked you are, and how 



very near the very verge of everlasting 
destruction you are, you would run more 
eagerly to God for mercy and help than 
you would run to capture any quantity and 
quality of earthly riches. The mightiest 
bargain any man ever made is the surren- 
der of his impoverishing sins, to accept the 
illimitable riches of an all- opulent God. 

Ah ! you say I must part with my sins. 
I do ; but they are not money and they 
are not price. They are serpents that bite, 
and sting, and stab, and poison, and doom, 
in the deepest despair. And before God 
can make you rich He knows, and you 
ought to know, that you must give 
them up. But I do not preach that 
side of the Gospel to-night. I put 
this other side to you. I say to you 
that if you will come and take what God 
wants to give you, it will so bless you, 
and awaken you, and guide you, and pos- 
sess you, that you will as naturally soar 
away from your sins, as soars the lark 
from the dismal swamp, when it sees the 
rays of the rising sun. Amen. 



Prayer Before Seratiott 

O Thou Almighty King, we thank 
Thee that we are permitted to sing " The 
Great Physician now is near." We praise 
Thee that we are not beyond that Physi- 
cian's care. W e adore Thee that we are 
still in the region of hope. We praise 
Thee because we are where every want 
may be supplied, and every wound healed, 
and every condition of disease and poverty 
remedied. We pray Thee for healing to- 
night. Heal our hearts. Heal our minds. 
Heal our bodies. Enrich our circum- 
stances. Amid the barterings of men we 
hear a Voice breaking forth from Thee. It 
is an enriching Voice. It is an encouraging 



70 



MO WD A T BARGAIN BUYERS. 



cry. It calls upon us to f* Buy of Thee, 
without money and without price." It is 
a strange and glorious call. Thou art too 
rich to sell to us for compensation. Thou 
art too benevolent to crowd us with 
embarassing conditions. Thou givest the 
best of riches with the lavish grandeur of a 
loving King. Thou hast given us multitudes 
of mercies in the past. Thou dost give us 
multitudes of blessings now. And still 
Thou dost call upon us to come for more. 
We come not to Thee, Father, for blessings 
that we can procure for ourselves ; but we 
come to Thee for those richer, better, 
higher gifts that no one can give to us 
except Thyself. We come to Thee and 
pray Thee to give us more real, living, 
active, working Faith. Give us more 
passionate and absorbing love. Give us a 
fresh supply of uplifting and crowning 
hope. Give us an increase of that meekness 
and gentleness and long-suffering and 
endurance, which we so much need in 
passing through tribulation. Give us large 
supplies of wisdom, and sagacity, and know- 
ledge, and courage, in discharge of duty. 
May our gentleness be so interblent with 
fortitude that we shall be kind, and yet 
strong; humble, and yet heroic; tender, 
and yet brave. We would not be narrow 
partialists. Father. We would rather be 
round, and full, and strong, at every point, 
so that we may be fitted not merely for 
some good words and works, but for 
" every good word and work." 

Go through this great audience. Bless 
all these people with Thy enriching pres- 
ence. Mag they all renew their cov- 
enants with Thee. May they buy of 
Thee all they need to make them 
mighty in Thy cause. They can all 
pay Thy price. They only have to 



receive Thee as their dear Father, and all 
Thy dominions, and principalities, and 
powers, and riches, become theirs. Oh may 
very many receive Thee here and now. It 
is the only way to be honorable, to be 
happy, to be useful. May all Thy children 
put themselves in the receptive attitude. 
May they open themselves up toward 
Thee, clasp Thee passionately to their 
hearts, and serve Thee with the strength 
of an all-devouring zeal. We bless Thee 
for the bliss of such divine abandon. And, 
O our Father, bless also the unsaved. 
Why should they continue to u spend 
their money for that which is not bread, 
and their labor for that which satisfieth 
not." Why should they longer pursue 
poverty, misery, and death. Oh! deliver 
the sinner ; stop him, turn him, forgive 
him, receive him and sanctify him. Gird 
him with the riches of Thy grace. Give 
him the joys of Thy glory, that he may 
join step with us in marching Home. To 
this end bless this service. Bless all that 
may be said and sung. Bless all the peo- 
ple. Let not one go away without a bless- 
ing. And bless our city, our country, our 
world. Continue, O Great Conqueror, 
Thy triumphal march over all the earth. 

Let the leaven of Thy Kingdom pene- 
trate human policies, commerce, trade, art, 
science, literature and all the affairs of 
men. Let it penetrate all the societies of 
men. May all the various orders, and 
clubs, and corporations, into which men 
group themselves come under the imper- 
ishable sceptre of the Cross. And may 
Thy riches, Emmanuel, become the heri- 
tage of the vast bodies of mankind, and 
not simply of the favored few. And to 
Thee, loving Father, blessed Son and ever- 
lasting Spirit, shall be all the Glory. 

Amex. 



The Headship of the Christ 



And He is the Head of the body, 

OUR Saviour has many titles : "Lion," 
"Lamb," "Rock," "Refuge," "En- 
sign," "Commander," "Prophet," 
"Priest," "Advocate," "Mediator," "Sur- 
ety," "Ransom," "Life," "Light," "Star," 
"Sun," and so forth. 

These are significant and beautiful. But 
there is no name that represents His re- 
lation to us so closely and completely as 
"Head" "Head over all things to the 
• Church." "Head of the body, the Church." 
"Head, even Christ, from whom all the body 
fitly framed and knit together through that 
which every joint supplieth, according to 
the working in due measure of each sev- 
eral part, maketh increase of the body unto 
the building up of itself in Love." 

He is Head of natural and human pro- 

But we will not now describe His Head- 
ship over these great systems. We will 
not tarry to see how He rules the physical, 
agricultural, manufacturing, educational, 
commercial, and social worlds for the final 
glory of His Church. But hasten to por- 
tray that still* nearer, dearer and more 
direct way He blesses His people. You 
need not go far for illustrations of how 
closety He is connected with you, and how 
completely He provides for you. Consider 
your own head as related to your own 
bodies. When you have a good head, and 
it is in right relations, you are all right. 
If you have a bad head and it is in wrong 
relations you are all wrong. If you lose 
your heads you lose yourselves. The body 
without a head is fit only for decay. The 
head, physiologically, is the source 
of the body. Life begins in the head. 
Life is continued by the head. There is no 
life without the head. And so, spiritually 
considered, Christ is the Head of life to the 
soul. Life begins in Him. Life continues 
by Him. When He goes life goes — 



the ' Church.' " Colossians 1 : 18. 

Thus you see the vital import, of our theme. 
Let us come up to it, simply, naturally, 
honestly, and ponder it carefully for it con- 
tains our life. We need not know anatomy 
to consider it; nor physiology to compre- 
hend it; nor the science of surgical dissec- 
tions to understand it. It is so easy and simple 
that I will only ask you to think of the re- 
lation of your own heads to your own bodies 
while I .speak. The least educated of you 
can do this. The best educated of you will 
also find ample range and reason f orj re- 
flection. 

I. Notice, it is with your head you 
think. You do not think with your hands, 
feet, or stomach. Your head thinks for all 
the members of your body. It is true 
some think too little, but then, whatever 
thinking you do, your head does it. N"ow 
apply this to yourself and Christ. He is 
your Head, and He thinks for you. But 
you say I have a head of my own and why 
should I not think for myself. You should 
think for yourself, every man should be a 
thinker. Above all else, naturally speak- 
ing, you should be thinkers. But how far 
can you go in your thinking. The most 
intelligent and thoughtful of you know 
that after all your efforts at thinking you 
are still like children trying to tunnel a 
mountain with a penknife, or plough up the 
ocean, with a pitchfork. You think a little 
into history, into nature, into science, 
and waves of mystery dash you back 
upon the shore, stranded and helpless. The 
most adventurous and penetrating thinkers 
have found the power of their thought far 
too feeble to carry them to the end of any 
mystery. Enigmas, problems, puzzles, rise 
up on every side. Many of them are per- 
sonal and practical. Many of them we 
need to know. But, by thinking we can- 
not know. They are too deep, broad, high, 
intricate and involved, for us to understand. 



76 



THE HEADSHIP OF THE CHBIST. 



Death and disaster may surcharge them. 
Delight and dignity may be pent up in 
them, but in our feebleness of thought we 
are unable to follow any power to its be- 
ginning or its end. In this puny childish- 
ness of thought. In this whelming 
mystery of life. How cheering it is to 
know you have a Head, great enough, grand 
enough, thinking for you where you can- 
not think, planning for you where you can- 
not plan. Working out problems for you 
that you cannot solve, opening up enterpriz- 
es for you that you could not open, provid- 
ing things for you that you could not pro- 
vide, and leading you in ways that are safe, 
pleasant, and prosperous, when you cannot 
lead yourselves. Christ leaves you free to 
do your own thinking just as you leave 
your child free to do his. The more your 
child thinks in elevating lines, the better 
you like it. The more you think in inspir- 
ing lines, the better Christ likes it. But 
there are many vital things you think of 
for your child, that your child cannot think 
of for himself . So there are thousands of 
things Christ thinks of for you, you cannot 
think of for yourself. Where your think- 
ing ends, His begins. Where your think- 
ing lays you down, His takes you up. 
Eternity will only reveal the thinking He 
has done for you. He is constantly think- 
ing for your good. You think of many 
things for the good of your body. If you 
take proper care of your body, you cleanse 
it— you cloth it — you feed it— you exercise 
it — you warm it. You are careful of every 
part of it. You cannot " say to the foot — 
I have no need of thee, nor to the hand — 
I have no need of thee." Nor to vein, nor 
artery, nor finger, nor toe, I have no need 
of thee. Every part of your body has your 
thought. And especially when any part 
of it is assailed and wounded. If you cut 
your arm, if a pain sets in, if the pain is 
acute and severe, what rubbing, and an- 
nointing, and dosing, and doctoring you 
are willing to go through to make the 
member well! Your whole thought is 
turned to the place where pain reigns, and 
you think of everything to relieve it ; you 
think most of those members of your body 
that need thought. And so Christ thinks 



of you. You are a member of His body ; 
you are as close to Him, if you are a Chris- 
tian, as flesh and blood are to you. He is 
the "vine, ye are the branches." He is 
the Head, ye are the body. If any of you 
get into poor condition, if you become so 
gross, or earthly, and sinful, that His divine 
Life and Love cannot circulate through you, 
it pains Him ; He feels it ; He thinks of 
you ; He uses everything to set right again ; 
He uses the medicine of His word ; He 
uses the Pharmacy of His church ; He sends 
his pharmacists to compound all kinds of 
medicines for you. They have to give you 
your remedies, sugar coated perhaps, to in- 
duce you to take them. The quinine of 
truth has to be put up in capsules of love 
or else you wont swallow them. And so it 
comes to pass that Christ and His true co- 
workers have a hard time with some of 
you. And sometimes some of you become 
so dense and stupid, and dull and worldly, 
and sensuous and dead, that Christ has to 
cast you off from His body to keep you 
from bringing blood poisoning and gan- 
grene into the body. And O dear one, 
the worst disaster that ever can overtake 
you, is to be cast off out of the body of 
Christ, and out of the thought of Christ. 
And the most blessed blessing that can 
come to a man is to be brought into such 
clean, close, harmonious relations with 
Christ, that nothing can obstruct for a, 
moment, the Hoio of His life, love, and jog 
through cdl your being. This is victory. 
This is triumph of the highest type. 

To have even a great human thinker 
thinking for you is important. I once knew 
a man of powerful thought, in a leading 
New York firm. He was a member of my 
congregation. He was a man of powerful 
personality. When I 'had some sister or 
brother in the Church who needed a situa- 
tion, I went to him. He took the name, 
and usually in a short time he sent a position. 
That was all very well. But oh, what is that 
compared with having a thinker at court 
before whose mind all difficulties vanish, 
all problems open, all embarrassments and 
mysteries disappear. A thinker who can 
think to the end of any line of thought, 
who can run His mind like lightning 



THE HEADSHIP OF THE CHRIST. 



77/ 



through the most involved, abstruse, 
elusive, and difficult questions, and bring 
them up and out, and set them in clear 
order before our poor dim eyes. My peo- 
ple, would it not be well and wise for you 
to place yourselves fully under the care of 
this Thinker ? You cannot always think of 
what is best for you. He can. You will not 
be able to fathom all the vital themes with 
which your welfare is united. He will. 
Let Him then take care of your case. I 
knew a young man who was in trouble, he 
was taken to law about it. There was an 
able lawyer in town who undertook for 
him. I remember asking that young 
man how he thought he would come out. 
He said with an air of assurance, " I'll come 
out all right, Lawyer L. has my case." He 
had confidence in his advocate. His con- 
fidence was not misplaced. The intellec- 
tual ability of the advocate won. How 
much more shall the intellectual ability of 
your Pleader prevail. He understands, 
He comprehends within the gigantic range 
of His illimitable intellect, all laws, all op- 
nonents, all liabilities, and charges that can 
be made against you. And He is prepared 
for them. No pleader can be successfully 
matched against Him. He never lost a 
case placed fairly and honestly in His 
charge. He shall not lose thine, only see 
that you let Him think for you when you 
cannot see clearly for yourselves, only be 
careful that you do not imagine you under- 
stand things you don't understand. 
When yon come to a mysterious provi- 
dence, a deep difficult sea, a night of storm, 
a hurricane of temptation, then let Him 
do your thinking, let Him lead you through, 
or perhaps lead you to " stand still and see 
the Salvation of God." Aye, too, and when 
brethren, as you all have done and will do 
perhaps many times again, when you 
come to a place where two roads meet, 
when both alike seem inviting, when you 
do not know which to take, remember they 
are not both best for you. Remember each 
pilgrim has his own particular path, and it 
is for him to find and keep it. Now when 
you come to a time when you do not know 
which way to take, go to your great In- 
structor in prayer. Ask Him. ^_Do not 



give up till you find an answer in your 
heart. Then rise from your knees, and go 
with steadfast step, your way rejoicing. 
The path God chooses for a man at the out- 
set may be very dreary and difficult. But it 
is "better farther on." It will lose, its 
difficulties. You will get past the "slough 
of despond." You will safely pass the 
belching Cliffs of Sinai. You will reach the 
high lands on which is laid the highway 
of Holiness. You wdll here find the Pil- 
grims sweet, and pure, and kind. You will 
here see flowers of rarest beauty on either 
side. The Hons, leopards, and tigers will 
be chained. The birds mounting toward 
the sky, will sing through all your en- 
raptured soul. The air will brace up into 
harmonic tension all the faculties of your 
intellect. The sweet and silvery moon 
(the Church), will charm you in the night, 
and the Son of Righteousness, circled with 
His redeemed, will shine upon you during 
the day. And when at length you reach 
the Heights of Beulah, and survey all the 
way in which the Great Thinker 
has led you; with a wave of glory 
rippling on your lips, and an ocean of glory 
swelling in your enraptured spirit, you shall 
say, surely my "Head" has thought for me 
powerfully, beautifully, beneficently, all the 
way. 

II. You not only think loith your head 
but you see with your head. Next to 
thought, sight is the most important. The 
power of sight has been placed high up in. 
your body so that you might the more 
easily see. Your eyes have been placed 
in front to enable you to see where you 
are going. The sight of the body is the 
farthest reaching physical faculty we 
have. With it we can scan the landscape, 
view the lovely river, trace the outline of 
the distant mountain. With it we can 
survey the awful sea, and more awful sky. 
With it we can come down from the maj- 
estic to the minute, and note the delicate 
tracery in an insect's wing, or a flower's pet- 
al. The uses of sight are endless. By it we 
see where things are ; what things are ; 
how things are ; how to reach things, and 
how to make them different. We all ap- 
preciate the high significance of sight. It 



78 



THE HEADSHIP OF THE CHRIST. 



charms with visions of the beautiful, and 
inspires us with vistas of the true. It 
takes us down into the realms of the mar- 
velously minute and soars with us to the 
regions of the amazingly grand. 

But, though the power of sight is so sur- 
prising, yet compared with the size of the 
universe, physical vision is exceeding in- 
significant. By it we cannot know what 
may be coming up beyond the horizon, we 
cannot see what baleful influences may be 
in the air, or in the sky, or in the earth. 
We cannot know what myriads of: foes may 
be coming, crouching stealthily upon us 
from the shades of night, or from the un- 
seen realms of the Satanic World. The 
real wrestle is not with flesh and blood. 
The real wrestle is with hidden "principali- 
ties, power, rulers, of the darkness of 
this world, and spiritual wickedness^ in 
high places." The real fight is the 
fight with foes we cannot see. They are 
upon us before we naturally know of their 
coming. They have struck, staggered, 
stunned, slashed, and wounded us be- 
fore we naturally know that the 
battle is begun. Under such terrible 
circumstances how valuable, how vital 
it is to have a Head with an Eye 
so keen, so clear, so far reaching, so all- 
discerning, as shall scan the foe from far. 
As shall warn us of his coming. As shall 
tell us how strong he is. As shall show us 
how to fight, what weapons to use, how to 
attack, whether from behind breastworks, 
or in the open? Whether on a walk or on 
a double quick ? Whether on front flank 
or rear ? Whether with the grape shot of 
Sinai or the fine sword of Hattin? .. Ah ! 
my Brothers, no one can calculate the 
value of such an All- Commanding Eye. 
Under the guidance of this Eye the brave 
spirits of mankind have soared in conquest 



over the world, flesh, and devil. Under the 
leadership of this Eye heroes and her- 
oines of humanity have mounted the 
chariots of virtue, rode into the thickest of 
the enemy, and routed with the spears of 
truth, most majestic foes. For, want, of the 
guidance of this Eye vast multitudes of 
the sons and daughters of men fall in the 
awful fray. "Fall into many hurtful and 
and deceitful lusts which drown men , in 
perdition." O blessed, beneficent Eye of 
Messiah, be over us. Look .out for ■ us 
al\yays. Guide us ever. Show us when 
to attack and when to retreat. Show us 
how to overcome all evil in us, around j us, 
and before us, and bring us off triumphant 
in every battle. 

But this Omniscient Eye of our Head 
can do. much more than this. It can . re- 
veal to us where our strength lies. Where 
our friends are. How we may equip 
ourselves for whatever may come. How 
we may go to the green pastures and gain 
the peaceful waters. How we may culti- 
vate the garden of our lives, and employ to 
best advantages our powers, in God's Vine- 
yard. How we. may gain the beauties of 
God's Grace, and the glories of His Love* 
r ju \v we may be transformed, "from 
glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
Lord." How each event in life may be 
made a shuttle to cast some new and lovely 
thread into, the pattern of our character. 
How even the darksome night may leave a 
lovely shade, and how the blazing trial may 
make a beauteous hue. How, in a word, 
all things, may be made to , work together 
to produce the very best effects in that 
essential spirit which we shall carry , with 
us into the land of immortal youth and 
beauty. " I0Krlj] . . y f. jjr! rfe i&h 

With such views of life as this,'; my 
friends. With such vistas of final grand- 



THE HEADSHIP OF THE CHRIST. 



79 



ear opening up before us, well may we 
cease to peer into the perverse affairs of 
men. We can say farewell to the short- 
sighted visions of the world. 

We can say goodbye, to the sightless 
crowds of sin, and we can the more closely 
join the keen-eyed, conquering hosts led on 
by our owir Immanuel. We can the more 
concentratingly call upon all the powers of 
■our being, and upon all our associates, re- 
latives, and friends to come under the Ban- 
ner Of our King, as we cry- — Great Head of 
the Church triumphant, "Guide us with 
Thine Eye." 

III. The head not only thuds and 
rooks, for us, but also hears for us. Hear- 
ing is next in importance to sight. Hear- 
ing performs a number of most important 
functions. - It warns us of coming clan- 
ger, the roar of the cataract the 
howl of- the tornado, the bellowing 
of the lion, the hissing of the ser- 
pent, the twang of the bow, the boom 
of the thunder', the whoop of the war- 
rior, the rumble of the train, the ding 
of the bell, the screech of the whistle, 
the voice of a friend, warns us of danger 
near.' But there are multitudes of even 
more important things we cannot hear. 
We cannot hear the decisions of eternity. 
We cannot hear the counsels of Heaven, 
nor listen to the decisions of the courts of 
hell. We cannot hear the wheeze of 
Satan, nor the snarl of the dogs of doom. 
They do not come with outward growl and 
alarming roar. They do not approach with 
tattoo of drum nor shriek of clarion. We 
cannot hear their soft whispered death- 
like approach. But Jesus, our Head hears, 
all. Pie is master of phonetics. He hears 
the slightest click of the armor of the 
enemy. He- rushes between you and 
danger. He, as your Head warns you of 



the approaching foe, and gathers you 
''under His' wings " till he has passed. 

Hearing performs another f uriction ; 
through hearing we gain much instruction. 
We listen to teachers, dear. We learn of 
great events of history, art, science, trade, 
commerce, duty, destiny. 

The orator pours his flood of feeling ' on 
fire through our ears, and we are mightier 
than we were. But there are many things 
even of this acoustic ' order, we have 
not ability to hear. Many a stately story 
of the sky, many a fact of this strange 
existence, many an oration by the orators 
of bliss we never hear, for, as "eye hath not 
seen, so ear hath not heard," many of the 
things God hath laid up for them that love 
Him. But Christ our glorious Head, 
hears all. His ear is infinite. He r hears 
every sound. As the hearing Head, He 
transmits to us His body, the Church. You 
as part of that Body, hear what others do 
not hear. A strong secret impression is 
made upon you. The great Head hears 
and leads you off in the best direction. 
He gives you the benefit of what He hears. 
As all the good news you hear benefits 
your body, so all the good things He 
hears benefits His body. You are a part 
of that Body, therefore it benefits you. 

Hearing performs another pleasant 
duty beside warning of danger, and instruct- 
ing in knowledge. It charms with the 
soothing melody of symphonious sounds. 
How often you have been cheered by the 
sweet singers of this choir behind -me ! 
How often you have been harmonized by 
the mellifluous music of this organ! How 
often have you been symphonized with 
oceans of harmony that have rolled out 
from this great congregation ? • 

How powerfully you have again and again 
been swept up out of your sorrows and 



so 



THE HEADSHIP OF THE CHRIST. 



sins by the stirring songs of the Friday 
night praise and prayer meeting? But 
why do you weekly experience these glor- 
ious elevations, these grand harmonizations? 
It is because your infinite Head, your 
Almighty Harmonizer mingles with 
the throng. It is because His Heavenly 
music beats from the skies. It is 
because you feel through your invisi- 
ble Head the high harmonies of Heaven, 
sweeping your hearts with love notes of your 
Father. It is because your Father, through 
your Saviour, has been singing with joy over 
His redeemed. It is because those viewless 
love songs have secretly touched you, and 
tuned you, and brought you into harmony 
with eternal law, eternal truth, and eternal 
power, so that you feel befriended by all 
the final and omnipotent agencies and 
authorities of this vast and everlasting 
universe. It is no wonder you feel so well, 
and sing so well. It is no wonder you 
shout amen, and cry, Hallelujah ! The won- 
der is that the joy is not universal. The 
marvel is all do not catch the rapture. 
" Oh, that all might catch the flame ! All 
partake the glorious bliss ! !" 

IV. But the Head not only thinks, 
sees, and hears for you* but also smells for 
you. The olfactory organ is necessary to 
your welfare. There are some things you 
cannot see nor hear. These are the exha- 
lations that come from surroundings. 
Some are healthy, others unhealthy. The 
odor of the fragrant flower attracts you. The 
fetor of the putrescent carcass repels you. 
You need noses, and Yankees are usually 
well gifted with them. But there are 
mephitic vapors in the moral world you 
cannot smell. There are also many aro- 
matic balms in the spiritual realm you can- 
not realize. But Christ, whose "garments 
smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia out of 



ivory palaces," can detect those redolent 
perfumes for you, and report when either 
rancidity or ottars are nigh, and lead you 
from the filthy and the fetid, to the sweet- 
scented flowers and fruits of spiritual 
love. 

V. Over and above all this it is through 
the Head you receive, taste, and masticate 
your food ; a vast region of spiritual glory 
opens before us here. Time permits only 
the baldest outline. You can fill it up at 
leisure. 

1. As natural nourishment enters your 
body through your natural head, so spirit- 
ual nutriment enters your soul through 
Christ, your Spiritual Head. He is the 
Way the blessing comes. 

2. As Spiritual Head He is ever 
present to taste what is offered as food to 
His body, the Church. If the fare is 
healthy He accepts it. If unhealthy He 
rejects it. 

3. As Spiritual Head of His people He 
breaks up food into assimilative portions. 
He still breaks and blesses the Bread of 
Life. He admits nothing to His body, the 
Church, which it cannot digest. He admits 
only what He first has tasted and tested as the 
receptive Head and prepared for the assimi- 
lative functions of the Church, His body. 
Here is a field for thought to range and revel 
in. The grand lesson of the whole is that 
nothing evil can enter your life if it enters 
through Christ, and that everything good 
shall flow into your life if you keep as closely 
related to Him as your natural body keeps 
to your natural head. 

Sanhedrimists say : "All prophets prop- 
hesied not but of the days of the Messiah." 
"The world was created not but only for 
the Messiah/' But Paul, the greatest of 
them all, exclaims, "In Him dwelleth all 
the fulness of the God-head bodily." Thus 



THE HEADSHIP OF THE CHRIST. 



81 



then, Christ your Head is your Infinite 
Thinker, Seer, Hearer, Defender, Provider. 
Place yourself squarely, fully, and forever 
under Him. For He is the Head of the 
Body, the Church. Amen. 



Prayer. 

Our Father, we thank Thee for many 
blessings. We praise Thee for ability to 
think of Thee, to love Thee, and to obey 
Thee. We praise Thee for all the gifts 
Thou dost send to us from the hands of 
nature. We give Thee gratitude for food, 
clothing, and shelter. We ascribe honor 
and glory to Thee for Thy Holy Word, 
Thy Blessed Day. Thy loving people, and 
for all the hopes and joys that thrill our 
hearts. But above all, we adore Thee for 
Thy well beloved Son, who has lived for 
us, and died for us, and now lives for us 
again. We especially adore Thee for the 
close relation between Him and us. He 
is our Head. He is the One who thinks 
for us where we cannot think for ourselves. 
When our own sight fails, He looks out for 
us. When our hearing is inadequate, He 
hears on our behalf. When we fail to 
discern the delicious odors of Thy Truth, 
He brings them home to us. When we are 
not able to go any farther in tasting that 
Thou art good, He leads us out and on to 
still richer spiritual food, to rarer stimulus, 
and more palatable nutriment. Words fail 
to express the rapture we experience 
many times when He thus, as a Shep- 
herd, leads us from banquet to ban- 
quet of truth, and from fountain to 
fountain of love. We find each 
succeeding fountain sweeter, clearer, and 
better. He leads us to feast after feast, 
and each feast is more charming than the 
one behind it. We do ask Thee to help 



us more and more to see and feel the mar- 
velous improvability of our nature underThy 
leadership. The farther Thou dost lead, and 
the closer we follow Thee, the truer, and 
sweeter, and stronger life becomes. Then 
take the entire guidance of our various 
lives. Unite us, O Saviour, as closely 
to Thee as our Heads are united to our 
bodies. Unite us thus, that we may 
receive, moment by moment, the enriching 
benefit of Thy infallible thought, Thy 
infinite sight, Thy minute hearing, Thy 
receptive assimilation. We would, in all 
these high regards, be completely under 
Thy control. As the body places itself 
under the dominion of the head, so we 
place ourselves under Thee. Some of us 
may be the hand in Thy body ; others of 
us may be the foot. But we have all need 
of each other ; and we have all need of 
Thee. Bless us therefore greatly, together. 
Make us a great blessing to each other. 
Bless the official brethren of this, Thy 
Temple. Bless the private members. 
Bless the rich, and bless the poor. Bless 
the weak, and bless the strong. Bless 
the tempted, and bless the triumphant. 
May each and everyone of us group our- 
selves under Thee, our Head, that we may 
be a consistent, coherent, vital, and grow- 
ing body; that we may all advance 
together and fight together, and suffer 
together, and conquer together. In Thy 
keeping, beneath Thy care, O All-provi- 
dent One, we need have no anxiety, nor 
fear about to-day, or to-morrow, or eter- 
nity. Thy honor, power, love, glory, 
and possessions Thou hast pledged 
for us and to us. All we need to 
be careful about is to follow Thee 
fully and faithfully. Make and keep 
us faithful in whatever Thou dost give us 
to do ; faithful in the store, on the street, 



82 



THE HEADSHIP OF THE CHRIST. 



in the home, in society, in solitude, in 
public, in private. Oh, may we be increas- 
ingly faithful to Thee and each other, and 
to the world about us. Make us lights in 
that world. Make us conservators of vir- 
tue, savers of the seeds of truth, helpers 
of the people toward Thee. May we make 
this our main business. May we look upon 
all else as merely incidental. And O our 
Saviour, bless all humanity ; bless the var- 
ious nations of the earth ; bless those 
nations, England and America, who are 
especially disposed to arbitrate misunder- 
standings, and reason themselves out of 
difficulties. May the spirit of peaceful 
arbitrament prevail. May the nations say 
when dangers arise, let us not resort to 
mutual slaughter, but let us come and rea- 
son together and settle bur troubles in the 
light of brotherhood, and not in the flames 
of battle. To this end, abundantly bless 
all statesmen, all senators, all parliament- 
arians, all diplomats and governors of the 
people. Bless all great scholars, and 
thinkers, and speakers, and writers. May 
these leaders of the people soon unite 
themselves under Thee, their only True 
and Living Head. And thus let the leaven 
of Thy Kingdom spread from Thee, 
through Thy Church, to Thy world. And 
so all the people shall love and praise 
Thee. Have much pity upon those who 
suffer from the barbarities of King Craft, 



and the cruelties of war. Have pity upon 
Cuba, torn and bleeding at our feet. Bring 
deliverance to that gem of the Gulf, and 
establish Thy Kingdom upon that lovely 
Isle. Bless and pity Thy ancient Ameri- 
can people. What have the}^ done to pro- 
voke such assassination ? O Lord, Thou 
knowest, "If in innocence they thus suf- 
fer, O Lord, lift up Thy hand and let Thy 
people not be consumed. We join this day 
the cry coming from under the altar of 
the souls of them that were slain for the 
Word of God and the testimony which 
they held ! ! And we with them cry, 
" with a loud voice saying " How long O 
Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge 
and avenge our blood on them that dwell 
on the earth." 

It is not our duty to call for the slaugh- 
tering of any, but to pray for the salvation 
of all. And so we implore Thee to save the 
Turk and to spare the Armenian, and to 
save the world. Banish all systems of 
cruelty and error. Bring all systems of 
kindness and truth into Thy Church. 

Pour out the promised gift on all, 
Answer the universal " Come !'" 

The fullness of the Gentiles' call, 
And take thine ancient people home. 

To Thee let all the nations flow ; 

Let all obey the Gospel Word ; 
Let all their bleeding Saviour know, 

Filled with the Glory of the Lord. 

And to the Triune God shall be triune 
praises evermore. Amen. 



Christmas* 



wi I bring you good tidings 

LET the Star again guide the Sages ! 
Let angelic Hosts again sing "Glory 
to God in the Highest !■!•!" Let 
the soprano and the bass of Heaven's 
great organ sound our Father's praises 
through all this universe while we celebrate 
again the greatest Birth of Time. And 
let the hearts of men again rejoice in the 
royal proclamation of the Angel of the 
Lord, saying, "Fear not, for behold I bring 
you good tidings of great joy, which shall 
be to all people, for unto you is born this 
day in the City of David, a Saviour which 
is Christ, the Lord." 

This was the Birth song of our Redeem- 
er. Long had that birth been looked for 
on earth. The serpent of sorrow and of 
sin long had stung and stabbed the sob- 
bing world. The night of stupefaction had 
set in. The clouds were dense. The 
gloom was great. Earth and Heavens 
mute. No God seemed to speak from sea, 
sun, or sky. All things went on under the 
protecting &gis of remorseless law, poor 
and puny seemed mankind in the presence 
of avenging nature. Generation after gen- 
eration passed in tears to graves. The 
ever-craving maw of death appeared still 
unappeased. Distress and disappointment 
seemed to settle down on man. Was he 
no better than the beasts that perish ? Did 
he flit like a mere mayfly and then dis- 
appear forever? If there were a glory 
after which he might soar, and a God he 
might adore, would no one come and tell ? 
In agony of expectancy the watching one's 
waited. Hope never quite forsook the 
human bosom. Within struggled a strange 
longing after lasting life. There had been 
Avatars in India proclaimed by Brahmins. 
There had been hopes in Italy sung by 
Virgil. But Palestine held the people to 
whom the promises had been made. There 
the prophets spake. There the priests fore- 
shadowed. There the Messiah was most 



>f great joy." Luke II : 10. 

fully expected to appear. This expecta- 
tion was not in vain. When fulness of 
time had come the Divine Incarnation 
came. And Heaven made festive holiday 
over the unexampled scene. There have 
been many illustrious nativities, but none 
so illustrious as this. We rejoice in the 
birth days of Moses, Wesley, and Washing- 
ton. Their lives were blessings to the 
world. But never was there a birth that 
has given such reason for rejoicing as the 
birth of the Son of God. And, since we 
are so soon to celebrate that birth, it now 
becomes a privilege to show how to cele- 
brate it well. 

There are some celebrations in our land 
for which we have reason to be sad. How 
saddening it is to see national Thanksgiving- 
day turned into a time of drunken revelry ! 
How much more sickening it is to see 
Christmas turned to a time of gluttonous 
intoxication ! And yet it is to be feared 
this is what many do with the Christmas 
Festival. 

Drink sellers advertise intoxicants in 
large elaborate ways. They could not 
afford so to do if correspondingly large 
amounts of the fluids of death were not 
sold. Surely rioting and drunkenness is 
far from the design and spirit of such time. 
And any one who celebrates the Birthday 
of his Saviour in such manner, celebrates 
in a way that makes hell rejoice and Heaven 
weep. Then, vast multitudes celebrate 
Christmas by putting wreaths in windows, 
festoons on pictures, and the like. 

This is not blameworthy; but after 
thirty years observation we have noticed 
of these celebrants, that many do no hom- 
age to Jesus on any other day. They sel- 
dom, if ever, go to His temple ; seldom, if 
ever, do anything for His cause, and sel- 
dom, if ever, speak well of His name. 
This is too cheap a specimen of worship to 
be either helpful or healthy. If you can 



88 



CHRISTMAS. 



do nothing for Jesus but hang out a few 
evergreens on His Birthday, I think He 
will say to you substantially what the little 
boy said to his big brother, who sucked 
the oranges and gave him the peels. "You 
better eat these too, J ohnny, oranges like 
these make me sick.' 1 

There is another great class of well- 
meaning people, who celebrate Christmas 
by giving gifts. This, of late, has become 
the fashion. It is, one might almost say, 
" the rage." A person who is not in the 
habit of giving gifts, is reckoned out of 
class. And so Christmas has come to be a 
time for giving and receiving. And it has 
actually come to such a pitch that some 
folks cry because other folks are given 
more than they. This is surely not the 
best way of enjoying Christmas. 

It cultivates covetousness, which is con- 
trary to the law of Moses, and the Spirit of 
Jesus, If the celebration of the day shall 
descend to a mere selfish quid pro quo in 
which people expect to give things that 
they can conveniently spare and get things 
they like to have, it is hard to distinguish 
the value of such bartering beyond the 
huxtering exchange of any other day. 

Now in all this let us be understood. 
We do not say, " don't have a royal dinner 
on Christmas day." But what we do say, 
is "don't get tipsy." 

We don't say, " do not hang out pretty 
crowns, and other emblems of regard." 
But we do say, " do not by this deceive 
yourselves, and suppose that, because you 
hang out these things you are therefore 
Christians, for you may do so and be as far 
from Christianity as hell from Heaven." 

Nor do we say, do not give gifts. It is 
beautiful for parents, children, and friends 
to gather round the family tree and ex- 
change tokens of mutual love. Tears fill 
our eyes at remembrance of such sweet 
scenes in our own home conducted by her 
so lately gone. But what we say is, don't 
be expecting temporal things; don't be 
longing and looking for compensatory 
gifts, for that cultivates selfishness and sel- 
fishness is the sin that God's " unspeakable 



Gift," came to sweep away. Christmas 
is therefore, the time to nourish generosity, 
to cherish benevolence, to cultivate large 
liberality and love. And you cannot make 
an honest effort in this direction without 
enjoying Christmas in the most engaging 
way. 

There is just one other Christmas abuse 
that should be noticed here and that is call- 
ing attention to Santa Claus in place of 
Jesus Christ. It is true that Santa Claus 
or Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra 1,700 
years ago may have thrown three purses 
of gold through the windows of three nec- 
essitous daughters of a poor nobleman to 
enable them to maintain their honor, but 
that is no reason he should have so conspic- 
uous a place in the celebration of the Nativ- 
ity of Christ. 

We hope soon to see the Christmas day 
when we shall lift up our eyes and " see 
no man save Jesus only." 

The best way of nourishing the grand- 
eur of the soul is to look away to that Son 
who, while given, gave Himself " freely for 
us all-" He " though lost to sight to mem- 
ory dear, " forever must remain. For there 
is more left of Him than a majestic mem- 
ory. Because He "ever liveth to make 
intercession for us." He shall ever live in 
hearts He has left behind. 

Millions will ever sing of Him : 

" Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, 
My heart untravellecl fondly turns to Thee." 

It becomes us then to discover how we 
may rise to the splendors of His sublime 
Epiphany. 

We have seen certain mistakes we are to 
shun. Let us now see how we may catch 
the rising of the new-born Star. 

It is important that the leading features 
and accompaniments of your Saviour's 
birth, should be surveyed by you at such 
a time as this. 

Pray for illumination as I set them in 
order before your eyes. 

I. lie was conceived by the Holy Ghost 
and of a Virgin born. The renewal of 
sinful men by artificial and superficial 



CHRISTMAS. 



89 



method had failed. The Gentile world 
had been working at it for thousands of 
centuries. 

Sun, moon, star, storm, sea, mountain, 
landscape, river, bird, beast, man, woman, 
child, had all been invoked. The gather- 
ing of the mythic gods had culminated on 
Olympus and Roman pantheon. Nature 
had been explored for a Jove who could 
save. Far-off India had spoken by her 
Vedas. Distant China by her Books of 
Kings ; isle-girt Japan by her Kojiki ; con- 
tiguous Persia by Zenda- Vesta; hoary 
Egypt by Apis and Osiris, and northern 
Europe by frozen Sagas. But, when the 
world had placed her discoveries together, 
there was nothing found in its congregated 
systems to ■ satisfy the strange cravings of 
the soul of man. Highest philosopher and 
humblest scholar, loftiest king and meanest 
slave, were disappointed ; the whole world 
goaded to desperation was either roused to 
mutual slaughter, or stupified in sullen des- 
pair. When lo ! breaking on the midnight 
air over Judea's plains, rang the soothing 
voice from Heaven's minstrel wrapped in a 
cloud of glory, "Be not afraid, for behold 
I bring you good tidings of great joy which 
shall be to all people, for there is born this 
day to you, in the city of David, a Saviour 
which is Christ the Lord." 

There had been a favored Virgin of 
the North in Nazareth. " The Holy Ghost 
had come upon her, and the Power of the 
Highest had overshadowed her, and the 
Holy Being born of her was the beloved 
Son of God. " In her intensely interest- 
ing and delicate condition, she had trav- 
elled down to her ancestral Bethlehem, 
and there, according to Divine appoint- 
ment, her divinely begotten child was 
born. 

Ah, my friends, what cartoonist can 
paint the .sweet simplicity and supreme 
sublimity of that amazing scene f What 
orator can portray the absorbing magnifi- 
cence of that "first flush of Deity in infant 
form? We were in Bethlehem, Christmas 
night of 1877, to try to absorb some rays 
of this Divine outshining, but whilst 



the sacred strains of the holy story were 
graven deeper in our heart, and made more 
vivid to our mind, yet still the theme re- 
mains so deep, so high, that unto it we 
pretend not to attain. Impressively we 
felt then, and feel now, that perhaps the 
most important lesson for us to learn, is 
that this Child was born in Bethlehem, 
that we might be born into the Kingdom 
of our Father and our God. 

That thought has lifting force today. 
The more you consider it the more it lifts ; 
and the more *it lifts the more you con- 
sider. The Child Jesus was the Creation 
of the Holy Ghost, co-operating with the 
laws of love in human virgin form. The 
new Creature in us is the creation of that 
same Holy Ghost, co-operating with the 
laws of grace in human souls. What 
nature could not do ! What law could not 
do ! ! What we could not do ! ! ! The 
Holy Ghost did. That Holy One takes 
Christ and plants Him as Divine seed in 
our hearts. There He grows till He has 
overgrown and outgrown all evil in us. 
There He grows till He fills all our affec- 
tions, and all our reflections, and all our 
bodies, and all our activities. There He 
groAvs till we are imaged like unto Him- 
self, in spirit, in ambition, in purpose, in 
character and in destiny. There He grows 
till we can exclaim "Nevertheless I live 
yet — not I — but Christ liveth in me, and 
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live 
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
me and gave Himself forme." 

As when the skillful florist places the 
pollen of the superior plant in the vesicle 
of the inferior, and that superior flower 
grows and spreads and prevails until the 
inferior is of the same superior nature as 
itself so when the Holy Ghost plants the 
superior nature of Christ in our inferior 
nature, His nature grovjs and leavens 
till we cast off the old man, and put on 
the new, till we are renewed in the spirit 
of our minds, till we are transformed out 
of the image of Satan into the image of 
Jesus, till we are translated out of the 
Kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of 



OMRMTMAS. 



God's dear Son. " Blessed translation ! 
Glorious transformation ! ! It is more than 
renewal. It is better than rejuvenescence. 
It is regeneration. It is the new Birth. 
It is the projection of our better selves 
into a higher life. It is the issuance of 
our spiritual life into spiritual conditions. 
It is our introduction to those eternal 
forces that reign supremely above the law 
of corrosion, change, decay, and death. 

By celebrating Christmas in this higher 
way ; by opening our hearts and let- 
ting the Holy Spirit in ; "by beseeching 
that Holy Ghost to keep the young Jesus 
planted there ; by letting our life take in the 
full life of our Lord, we will have such a 
banquet as no mere earthly potentate can 
taste. Your re-born, ravished soul shall 
rise and " feast with Jesus' priests and 
kings." 

IT. And now let us notice some of the 
accrediting accompaniments of this most 
glorious Birth, proving it supernatural 
and Divine. 

Let us ascend the mountain and listen 
to the angels' song. For long time angels 
had spoken unto men. But this is the first 
time we hear them sing. When the glad 
news that Christ was bom reached the 
Heavenly hosts a new strain entered Hea- 
ven. The old Saints who had entered 
bliss must have gone almost wild with joy. 
Abel and Enoch, Abraham and Sarah, 
Jacob and Rachel, Job and Joshua, Moses 
and Samuel, David, Israel, Ezekiel, Jere- 
miah, Ezra, Xehemiah, Jonah, Micaih and 
Malachi, stirred by the news of the young- 
Deliverer's first appearance on earth, may 
have risen and sung, Glory ! Glory ! The 
hundreds of thousands, and thousands of 
thousands who had gone up from Judea 
may have caught the Hying joy and sung. 
Glory! ! Glory! ! The saints who had 
gone up from every country of Asia 
felt the swell of the great sea of ascending 
song, and, rushing up, must have sung, 
Glory ! ! Glory ! ! The saved ones, who 
had ascended from all the lands of Europe 
and felt the powerful billows of increasing 
bliss, must have flown forward, and sung. 



Glory ! ! Glory ! ! The redeemed ones 
from all parts of Africa and the Isles of 
the Sea, hearing the wondrous universal 
song, must have sung, Glory! ! ! Glory! ! ! ! 
All Heaven rang and re-rang with rever- 
berations that seemed endless and bound- 
less when there may have come a pause. 
And old Abraham, or Moses, or David, or 
some other illustrious chief, calling for 
audience, may have said. >k Comrades, the 
hour has struck, the time of our children's 
deliverance on earth has come, the Im- 
manuel for whom we watched and waited, 
and whom some of us foretold, has been 
born, born in Bethlehem of Judea, born 
to redeem the world. This is too good 
news to keep in Heaven, let us send sym- 
phonic envoys down to sing to our 
brothers that dwell on the earth, the glad- 
some song. Let us send our singers who 
appreciate the importance of this glorious 
Advent. Let them go, and sing the Anthem 
we have sung. The strains will find their 
way round the world, and there will be 
hope for our brother man.' , The words 
were received with glad acclaim. And so 
a select few were chosen, perhaps a million 
or so. They shot out from the pavilions 
of light, along the streets of gold, over the 
walls of jasper, through the gates of pearl 
and on down past stars and suns, till finally 
they hover over the plains of Bethlehem. 
And then with a burst of ecstacy that never 
was heard in earthly air, the Heavenly 
human choir broke out in one adoring, 
peace-proclaming song. "Glory to God in 
the Highest, and on earth Peace among Men 
in whom He is well pleased." Let every 
hearer notice with care that it is (according 
to a true translation) "Peace among men 
in whom He is well pleased, for there is 
no peace among men with whom He is 
displeased^ You may have money, fame, 
position and power, but you can never have 
peace till you please God. All good beings 
and powers below and all the hosts on high 
are pleased when you please Him. 

III. Xotice that it was to shepherds that 
this harmonic revelation was by the angels 
given. It was to shepherds oil dutg. They 



CHRISTMAS. 



were "keeping watch over their flocks by 
night." It is the true watching worker 
who hears the sweet love songs still. 

The lazy, drowsy drone hears not the 
music of real life. The idle laggard hears 
no Heavenly choirs singing the majestic 
dignity and destiny of man, and the sur- 
passing Love of God. It is to the vigilant, 
listening soul such sacred strains are given. 
It is to the vigorous, zealous spirit, the 
Heavens break forth in melodies of hope. 
It is the prompt, cheerful and faithful 
doer of duty who hears the angels sing. 
To such a soul there is a song in every 
star. A love note in every sunbeam. An 
orchestra in every ocean. A choir in every 
mountain. A melody in every mystery. 
A harmony in every trial. A pean of vic- 
tory in every battle. It is blessed to have 
shepherding to do. You are not called to 
shepherd sheep on wild Judea's Plains. 
But still you are called to shepherding. 
Some of you are shepherds of horses, others 
of you shepherds of children, others of you 
shepherds of grown up people, others of 
you shepherds of business. But whatever 
your calling or your care, cultivate the 
habit of keeping watch over your flocks 
by night ! ! The difference between the 
one who fails and the one who succeeds 
lies here. The successful man is the man 
who watches as he works. Everything 
teaches him. Everything sings to him. 
And he is the man for whom God has 
"songs in the night." "Therefore what I 
say unto one, I say unto all, watch." 

IV. The next party who have left their 
accrediting testimony that the birth of 
Jesus teas supernatural and Divine viere 
the ve?ierable Simeon and the prophetess 
Anna. The Heavens had sent their angels ; 
the fields had sent their shepherds ; and 
now the Temple sends its Simeon, and its 
Anna. In them, the priests and prophets 
were represented. While Jesus was very 
young, Joseph and Mary brought Him to 
the Temple to present Him to the Lord. 
(All parents will do well to follow this high 
example.) Simeon was "righteous and 
devout, and looking for the consolation of 



Israel.' 1 He was not looking for the con- 
solation of himself. If he had he never 
would have been able to recognize the 
Messiah. He lived on a higher plane, he 
had gotten above himself. " The Holy 
Spirit was upon him." And it was re- 
vealed to him by that Holy Spirit that he 
should not see death till he had seen the 
Lord's Christ." 

Under the luminous power of the Spirit, 
he came into the temple, " and, when Jesus 
appeared with Mary and Joseph, Simeon 
recognized Him, and took Him up in his 
arms and blessed Him and said, " Lord, 
now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in 
peace for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation 
which Thou hast prepared before the face 
of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles 
and the glory of Thy people Israel." 

And Anna too, the prophetess, "who de- 
parted not from the temple, but served God 
with fastings and prayers night and day, 
coming in that instant, gave thanks like- 
wise unto the Lord and spake of Him 
(Jesus) to all them that looked for redemp- 
tion in Jerusalem." 

Jesus reveals Himself to the saints in the 
Temple still. As I look at this great army 
of watching, devout, righteous souls grow- 
ing up about me ; as I see your faces, 
hear your praises, join in your prayers, 
your hopes, and joys, I feel quite sure 
Jesus has revealed His spiritual glory to 
many of you. Brothers, sisters, you can 
do no better than keep going straight on. 
Outside friends, you can do no better than 
join these brethren and sisters in waiting 
and watching for Jesus to come and give 
consolation to Israel. The most becalming, 
strengthening, inspiring, vision is the vision 
of Jesus and His love. You all can have 
that vision by focusing your view upon 
Him now. 

V. The next great accrediting accom- 
paniment that demonstrates the birth of 
Jesus Christ to be supernatural and Divine 
was the strange visit of the sages fro?n the 
East. The material and scientific worlds 
were so gladdened by this Birth that they 
could not be still. The stars danced for 



92 



CHRISTMAS. 



joy in their circuits. They could not leave 
students ignorant of such great Advent. 
One of their number was deputized to lead 
the scholars way, and with identifying 
gleam hung shimmering over where the 
young Child was born. 

Tradition has it that Gaspar, Melchior, 
and Balthasar were. students of the sky; 
that these were attracted by the strange 
demeanor of the stars; that their knowl- 
edge of astrologic horoscope assured 
them a great King had been born ; that 
they followed the westward- wending Birth 
Star till it led them to Judea. Here sacred 
Scripture takes up the theme. " Then 
came wise men from the East to Jeru- 
salem, saying, where is He that is born 
King of the Jews, for we have seen His 
star in the East, and are come to worship 
Him." This strange inquiry by strange 
men excited Herod the King, greatly, and 
all Jerusalem with him. Herod called for 
the chief priests and scribes, and demanded 
of them where Christ should be born. The 
rightful reply was Bethlehem, as foretold 
by the prophet Micah. The shrewd and 
careful astrologers from the East had now 
a two-fold guide — the prophetic records 
of Israel, and the star that still was in the 
sky. They passed from Jerusalem with 
eyes fixed on that star. It moved south- 
ward toward Bethlehem, and they followed 
where it led the way. Bending low, that 
star not only stood over Bethlehem, but 
over the spot " where the young Child 
was." 

When they saw the star do this, " they 
rejoiced with exceeding joy." They entered 
the house where Mary and the baby were. 
They fell down, and worshipped Him. (Vir- 
gin-adoring brother mark, Him, not Her.) 
They opened their treasures. They pre- 
sented Him symbolic gifts : gold, a symbol 
of His Kinghood ; myrrh, a symbol of His 
suffering ; frankincense, a symbol of their 
adoration. This visit of the astrologic 
Sages was the tribute of the starry and the 
scientific worlds to the majestic grandeur 
of the Son of God. Not only stellar, but 
terrestrial science also cast their homage 



more and more at His feet. In the lands 
through which He passes science springs 
up with joy; science of the Heavens, 
science of the earth ; science of sociology ; 
science of human government ; science of 
human improvements ; science of steam- 
cars, steamships and steam factories; 
science of telephony and telegraphy ; 
science of electric luminosity and electric 
propulsions. Science ! Science ! ! Science ! ! ! 
Friends, as you go home to-night, remem- 
ber that the light that illumes you ; that 
the cars that convey you ; that the mod- 
ern improvements that comfort you have 
all been born in human minds, because 
Christ was born in human hearts. No land 
that has rejected Him has any of these 
blessings. And no man that now rejects 
Him shall have these blessings long. 

VI. Now notice the accrediting 
accompa7iiment of Her odian persecution. 
The suspicious, selfish, cruel Herod sat 
uneasy on His throne. The news of a 
new-born King in Judea alarmed and 
enraged him. He dreaded the future, 
because he had misused the past. He 
could not brook the idea of a young aspir- 
ant to his exacting and tyrannous throne. 
He said, "I will end this infant usurpation." 
In his wrath he despatched soldiers and 
slew all the children in and around Beth- 
lehem. His object was most surely to 
include Jesus in the slaughter. But by 
Divine prevision and provision He had 
escaped to Egypt. And shortly after 
Herod, in his iniquities, was buried in a 
grave of everlasting shame. 

The Herods of this world are still seek- 
ing to destroy the young King of Hearts. 
Every man with a vile, hard, worldly, 
wicked soul is a Herod, and some such 
would even " out-Herod, Herod." They 
would crush Christianity. They would 
demolish the Church. They would pull 
down the Christ. But they can more 
easily pull the rising sun from the sky. 
He is an everlasting, ever-advancing King, 
and His enemies are the ones that are 
going to be pulled down. Sinner, scorner, 
infidel, you shall either bend the knee to 



CHRISTMAS. 



93 



the Son of God on earth, and find pardon, 
love, and Heaven, or you shall bend your 
knees in hell, calling in vain for a drop of 
water to cool the fiery agony of your soul. 
Oh, unconverted one, let me lift you up out of 
your savage sinfulness. Let me, with 
cries, and tears of pity, lead you to the 
only Saviour who can save. For as sure 
as Christ was born, «'you must be born 
again," or else you never shall see the 
Kingdom of God ; and that means that you 
never shall see rest, nor peace, nor love, 
nor hope, nor joy, nor pleasure, nor 
Heaven." 

Fellow pilgrims, how cheering it is to 
you to hear that all the greatest powers of 
earth and Heaven have combined to testify 
to the rightful and eternal grandeur of 
your young King's birth." 

The Great Spirit of the Universe has 
given His pro-creative love. The angelic 
choirs of Heaven, composed probably of 
ascended saints, have sung their Gloria in 
Excelsis. The watchful shepherds, repre- 
senting the working world, have paid their 
visit of homage. The righteous Simeon 
and the prophetic Anna, representing the 
religious world, have offered their adora- 
tion. 

The three Sages from the East represent- 
ing the world of learning, and guided by 
their Scientific Star, have paid Him trib- 
ute. 

The kingly Herod, representing the sel- 
fish strategic, cruel world, has added his 
last contribution to our young King's 
power and glory. And now with all these 
great accrediting representatives from earth 
and Heaven, alike confirming the Divinity 
of the birth of the Son of God, how firm 
should be your faith, how strong your 
credence, how powerful your confidence, 
how reliant your trust ? 

These ?najestic accrediting accompani- 
ments prove His birth was divine, that 
He actually was the Son of God Hitnself 
in the absolute sense. And as His birth 
was divine, so your re-birth into Him is 
also divine. In this new birth into Him you 
are to grow, Pie in you, you in Him. Each 



day you are to become more lovely because 
more like Him. Under His leadership you 
may have a new birth each day. A birth 
out of darkness and into light ; a birth out 
of weakness into strength ; a birth out of 
sorrow into joy ; a birth out of gloom into 
glory ; a birth into larger love ; a birth 
into deeper peace ; a birth into gentler 
meekness ; a birth into broader charity ; a 
birth into firmer faith ; a birth into wider 
knowledge ; a birth into more flaming zeal. 
And these successive births will put you 
in condition to " bring good tidings of 
great joy" to others, as you travel to your 
home. 

Amen. 



Prayer. 

O our Father, it is delightful to com- 
mune with Thee. There is no company so 
sweet as Thine. Thou art always ready to 
converse with Thy faithful children, and 
many, many precious hours have we passed 
in Thy company. Once more we come to- 
gether before Thee in this public way, be- 
cause we want to worship Thee, and to help 
and encourage each other in Thy. service. 
Thou, Lord, art the best Helper and so it is 
that in prayer for help we come to Thee. 
We thank Thee for all Thy marvelous 
mercies. Mercies so constant, so suitable, 
so numerous, and so strong. We thank 
Thee for the Great Ones who have been 
born. We thank Thee for the great phil- 
osophers and statesmen, for the illustrious 
poets and artists, for the magnificent 
statesmen and patriots, for the resplen- 
dent inventors and orators, for the gifted 
saints and singers. But there is no Birth 
that captures our hearts so much as that of 
Thine own Babe in the manger-cradle of 
Bethlehem. We sometimes wonder 
Father, how Thou couldst give Him up to 
such humiliation, to such penury and ex- 
posure. But it was on account of the great 
love wherewith Thou didst love us poor 
sinners. It was because of the eternal 
results of glory that should follow our re- 
demption. And so from the deepest grati- 



94 



CHEIST3IAS. 



tude of our appreciative hearts we would 
ascribe Thee fitting praise. And now () 
kindest, truest Father, since Thou hast so 
graciously given Tlry Son, and He has 
consented to be given for our sakes, we 
beseech Thee to grant that, so far as we are 
concerned, He may not have been given in 
vain. But let us all be truly and sincerely 
born to Him since He has been born to us. 
O Lord bless us with the new birth again 
and again. May we be born again 
and again into brighter light, into stronger 
love, into more charming character. May 
we be blest and re-blest again and again 
till we are lifted up out of every meanness, 
out of every sinful habit of thought and 
feeling, out of every unwise and indiscreet 
custom of speech and action. And O Lord, 
implant the very best seed of salvation in 
our hearts. We would not be drivelling and 
worthless people of whom Thou hast rea- 
son to be ashamed. We would be thorougly 
good and wise that Thou mayest take some 
comfort with us. That Thou mayest be 
pleased with us and happy to acknowledge 
us as Thine own children. Destroy there- 
fore, O Lord God, everything in us that is 
offensive in Thy sight. Spare it not be- 
cause we love it. Nay, though we glory 
in it, and it is the delight of our eyes and 
of our heart, yet if it offend Thee, O Lord 
take it utterly away and make us free from 
"spot or wrinkle or any such thing." And 
not only take away all blemishes from us, 
but O blessed One who hast all power, 
promote and perfect in us, all intellectual 
and moral beauty. We need not care for 
bodily beauty. The body is only our tent, 
and will soon be folded up and laid away. 
But O Lord, we do value those beauties 
that we are to appear in before Thee in 
Thy Great Lleavenly Family. We do value 
above all else those beauties robed in 
which we are to appear forever before 
assembled Saints of all ages and lands. 
O Lord God, create in us all the beauties 
of Thy grace. May we be born again into 
all the loveliness of Thy Son . This is ask- 
ing great things but Thou hast told us to 
u ask and receive that our joy may be full." 



As we come up to this Christmas time may 
we be born to new views of Jesus. May 
we have larger conceptions of His grand- 
eur. May we see the sublime majesty of 
His ancestral splendor. May w r e see how 
angels and shepherds, and priests and prop- 
hets, and wise men, and even wicked men 
all have laid their contributions at His feet. 
May we see how the whole Godhead honors 
Him, how the angelic legions worship Him, 
how the working world looks to Him, how 
the religious and the learned worlds alike 
are delighted to honor Him as King. And 
do Thou help us to honor Him also. Help 
us to love Him and serve Him, and adore 
Him. Show us His surpassing loveliness 
that enamored with the sight, we may be 
enabled to induce many others to adore 
Him too. And we entreat Thee Father to 
bless all this temple. Bless all our beloved 
members. Keep each and all faithful. Let 
not Satan overcome even one of them. 
Bless these our friends, who are not mem- 
bers. May they give themselves to Thee. 
May the word preached powerfully, profit 
them. And may we soon see thousands 
of them born again unto Thee. We want 
to take them to Heaven with us. God 
forbid that any of these dear ones should 
be left behind. And now, bless Boston, 
bless Massachusetts, bless America, bless 
all Countries and Continents. May they 
"arise and shine for their light is come, and 
the glory of the Lord is rising upon them. ,, 
May they go out to meet the Divine down- 
shining, and catch such rays as shall banish 
war, emancipate the oppressed, and bring 
in the universal reign of righteousness. 

Grant us these requests, O Father, and 
unto Thee with Thy Son, and Thy Holy 
Spirit, shall be all the praise. Amen. 



Human Time. 



••To everything there is a time." Ecciesiastes 111:1. 



SOLOMON follows this up and adds, 
"A time to be born and a time to 
die, a time to plant and a time to 
pluck up that which is planted." 
Let us take a wider scope and see how 
serious and important the test is. 

There have been six great creative times 
and all were preparations for human time. 
Chaos had its time. A time when matter 
was confused, unsorted, jumbled, deranged, 
embroiled in an awful ocean of formless 
void, and darkness was upon the face of 
this dreadful deep. 

Classification had its time. A time when 
the elements were separated and appointed 
to their several duties. This was the time 
when Omnipotence moved upon the 
seething mass and said, "let there be light." 
Matter was commanded to form into 
globes, to marry into systems, under the 
moulding and guiding grip of gravity. 

Vegetable life had its creative time. The 
new-made soil was ordered to become pro- 
ductive, grass began^ to grow, plants to 
bloom," trees to flourish, and in the solitude 
of its own supremacy, the vegetable king- 



dom reigned. 



Fish and fowl had their time. God com- 
manded the waters to bring forth. Fish 
began to swim and fowl to fly. Immense 
monsters swam the seas. Huge leviathans 
navigated the air. These enormous creat- 
ures held possession of the aerial and 
aqueous worlds. 

Cattle had their time. "God command- 
ed the earth to bring forth cattle, creeping 
things, and beasts after their kind." Like the 
monsters of sea and air, these creatures of 
the earth grew to gigantic size. They 
were the Behemoths of old. Camels, 
horses, elephants are small compared with 
them. These megatheria or great wild 
beasts have left their skeletons to bear 
witness of their might. Science calls them 
Mastodonic. But we now have poor con- 



ception of the imperious grandeur, power 
and pride, with which these great creatures 
marched with undisputed sway through 
the primeval jungles of those, their halcy- 
on days. 

But there was a greater being coming. 
This being was man, who was also to have 
his time. 

All other times pointed to him. All 
other times were preparations for him. All 
other periods led up to him. Creation was 
a great epochal evolutive series of events 
getting the world ready for him. This 
being was to be superbly endowed. He 
was not to be so bulky in body, but he 
was to be God- like in mind. He was not 
to be so imposing physically, but he was 
to be capacious with an endless intellec- 
tual, moral and spiritual improvability. 
Accordingly, he was made at first mentally 
in GocVs own image. He was given do- 
minion over the fish of the sea, and fowl of 
air, and beasts of field, and every living 
thing upon the earth. And the Lord God 
loved him, planted a garden for him and 
put him in it, and caused every pleasant 
tree to grow, and every fruitful tree to 
flourish, so that he had nothing to do but 
roam at will amid divine luxuries like an 
illustrious prince, the special favorite of 
Heaven. Rivers of crystal flowed over 
their golden beds, through the garden . 
There was not a weed nor a briar, nor a 
thorn in all Eden. The soothing, balmy 
air filled the newly made man with the 
exhilaration of blissful life. And when he 
appeared a little lonely amid all this love- 
liness, the Lord was so thoughtful of him, 
and so tender to him that He made woman 
for him . Shortly after that the trouble 
began, and has continued ever since ; but 
the trouble, strange to say, has been a boon 
and blessing. Till then man knew nothing 
about good and evil. He w r as a beautiful 
innocent creature, the last and greatest of 



100 



HUMAN TIME. 



God's creations, bat not yet endowed with 
the moral sense. The possession of that 
moral sense was within his reach. There 
grew in the midst of the garden, "The tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil." That 
was the only tree of which he was forbid- 
den to eat, and death to innocence was the 
penalty attached to eating of this tree. 
The sly and subtle serpent played upon 
the fancies of the lovely Eve. He entic- 
ingly told her "God doth know that in the 
day ye eat" (of this knowledge revealing 
tree) "then your eyes shall be open and ye 
shall be as God, knowing good and evil." 
The woman looked and longed, and knew 
the tree was sweet to taste and delightful 
to view, and desirable to make one wise, 
and so she partook of the tempting fruit 
and gave to her husband, and man-like he 
also ate. A strange transition passed over 
them. Innocence was slain. A sense of 
sin and shame possessed them. The voice 
of God was now a terror to them. They 
sought to hide from His presence. The 
man heard His voice saying, "Where art 
thou?" Adam tremblingly confessed his 
fear because of nudity. Who informed 
thee ? Hast thou eaten of the tree ? The 
man excused himself by pointing to the 
woman. The woman excused herself hy 
pointing to the serpent. The serpent was 
cursed. The great battle between good 
and evil was begun with the promise that 
good should conquer. The moral faculty 
in man was note added to his already high 
intellectual nature. The intuitive sense 
to discern between good and evil became 
a part of his being. He and all his pro- 
geny henceforth should know the differ- 
ence between right and wrong. This 
knowledge would cause conscience to 
accuse when vicious, and approve when 
virtuous. Out of the contracted pleasure- 
garden man was driven into the wide 
world of toil, with the possibility of rising 
to the infinite realms of immortality. Thus 
man fell, but in infinite icisdom and mercy 
fell out of a limited into an illimitable 
possibility . Man henceforth ceased to be 
a mere natural being and became an 



immortal soul. Through divine provisions 
he can develop into sublime intellectuality. 
And through redemptive grace he can 
evolve into profound spirituality. And 
through nurturing love he can ascend to 
Heaven amid acclamations of "well done," 
take his seat on the very throne of Gocl 
amid the plaudits of eternity, and be- 
come "an heir of God and a joint-heir with 
Jesus Christ." 

Thus, you see man fell, but he fell out- 
ward and upward. Poets may sing, Adam 
"brought death into the world and all our 
woe," but in the light of redemption we 
can sing, he brought moral life into the 
world and all our spiritual joy. As affairs 
were arranged before the fall, man stood 
forth as a skillful, beautiful, and innocent 
animal. As affairs are now arranged, man 
stands forth as the most moral, capable, 
spiritual, and prospective creature in 
all the universe. Before the fall man was 
simply a magnificent brute. Xow man 
when saved, is a magnificent spirit. Then 
man was a superb animal. Xow man is a 
superb Son of God. And if God will in 
his loving kindness, permit me to get to 
Heaven, after pa}dng homage to the 
Trinity, Adam will be one of the first T 
will look up, and I will thank both him 
and Eve for eating of that apple about 
which there has been so much prating. Thus, 
then, you see "to everything there is time ." 
Chaos has had its time. Organization of 
worlds has had its time. Proto-plasmic 
and vegetable life have had their time. 
Great fish and fowl have had their time. 
Huge mammals have had their time. 

But this is man's time. The calling of 
Chaos to order, the wonderfully skillful 
arrangement of sun, moon, and stars are for 
him. Where vast vegetation and huge 
trees grew and fell, God was packing away 
their great trunks that now form the coal 
beds, because He had man in view. 

Dining the great fish and fowl period, 
God was gradually grooving out the beds 
of the waters, and setting their foundations 
that they should not pass. 

During the period of the great animals, 



HUMAN TIME. 



101 



God was busy levelling and refining the 
surface of the earth. Spreading a rich 
loam of soil over its valleys ; settling the 
rich, limpid springs among its hills, and 
beautifying it here and there with lovely 
lakes and rivers, and laying away carefully 
among the mountains, lead, iron, copper, 
silver, gold, and precious stones, as in 
secure cabinets. He knew these jewels 
would be pleasing and useful for his chil- 
dren. In one word, my friends, there are 
physiologic, and geologic, and socialistic 
evidences in plenty to prove that man is 
Creation's crown ; that there is not to be 
any successor to man. He is the last and 
the best product of evolutive, creative 
skill. He has found out, or is finding out, 
all there is to find. He is capable of rising 
to all the majestic grandeur and glory of 
which any creature is capable. He is cap- 
able through Christ of rising to a knowledge 
of not only what God has done, is doing, 
and proposes to do ; but he is also capable 
of rising, through participation in God's 
plans, to reciprocation of God's love, to co- 
occupancy of God's governmental throne. 
He is capable, when commissioned and 
fortified by God, of not only governing 
animals, and harvesting natural forces, and 
exercising sway over nations, but he is 
capable of governing angels and seraphs 
and spheres. He, in fact, has in him the 
elements of Deity. He was made in God's 
image. He is educated in, and trained to- 
ward expansion in and knowledge of that 
image. He finds himself the chief product 
of the five great preparatory epochs. He 
finds himself standing in the midst of ed- 
ucating, expanding, and refining forces* 
These are all lifting him upward, leading 
him onward, making him more knowing, 
truthful, and loving. He discovers himself 
also standing amid very serious and dan- 
gerous enemies. Tn him rages sin, around 
him prowls satan, for him clamor the hosts 
of hell. Before him lies a grave, and over 
all is a pall of mystery that never yet 
except by the hand of Christ, has been 
lifted. Under all these exceedingly 
serious and interesting circumstances, it be- 



comes us as we approach another new year, 
to inquire into our relations to our time. 
"To everything there is a time," and we 
have seen this is our time. The question 
is, what should we do with our time. 

Time to humanity at large is long. 
Time to human beings personalty is short. 

It flies like a weaver's shuttle. It hastens 
onward like a post. It flyeth like the eagle 
rushing on the prey. It is like a vapor 
which appeareth for a little and then van- 
isheth away. The greatest souls have had 
the strongest impressions concerning the 
use and value of time. Hosea exclaims, 
"It is time to seek the Lord till He come 
and rain righteousness upon you." Jere- 
miah, under a desperate strain of pressure, 
calls out to the chosen people concerning 
the "time of their visitation." 

Jesus, Himself, under the great life work 
that bore down upon Him, exclaimed, "I 
must work the works of Him that sent me, 
for the night cometh when no man can 
work." And He wept over Jerusalem 
tears of undying pity because the people 
knew not the time of their visitation. And 
Saint Paul to the contending Corinthians 
exclaims, "Brethren, the time is short, it 
remaineth that they that have wives be as 
though they had none, and they that weep 
as though they wept not, and they that 
rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and 
they that buy as though they possessed 
not, and they that use this world as not 
abusing it, for the fashion of this world 
passeth away." Under the impelling sense 
of the vast issues at stake. Under the in- 
spiration of the lofty destiny that awaits 
the true soilders, fighting the great Battle 
for Eternal Victory, the drift of the cry of 
the greatest souls in the strife has been : 
"The time is short. The work is great. 
I press to its performance. I have only 
one thing to do. I am straightened till it is 
accomplished." Thus the burden of a great 
purpose propels forward, far into the battle, 
the bravest souls. Xow comes the practi- 
cal question. It is all very well for us to 
feel the rush of the heroes of the past. 
But beloved, we need to catch steps with 



102 



HUMAN TIME. 



the heroes of the present. There are, thank 
God, as glorious warriors in these days as 
ever were in any other days. There never 
was a time when so many noble souls were 
pressing toward the ultimate goal. The 
period of creed -fighting has passed. The 
time of sin-slaying has come. "To every- 
thing there is a time." Soul- saving is the 
business that is now having and is going to 
have its time. The human race moves on 
by periods. The Hebrews gave Messiah 
to the world. The Messiah gave the Gos- 
pel to the Church. The world has had 
its battles about that Gospel, in Church and 
out of Church. Everything is now pretty 
well settled. The infidels have been 
whipped at every turn. Genesis and Geo- 
logy embrace. The Gospel and the uni- 
verse harmonize. The laws of nature and 
the laws of grace are different manifestations 
of the same forces. The whole universe is 
a magazine for the Soldier of Christ to 
charge with. History is the gun to shoot 
with. And all that is now needed is for 
every man to stand in his place and fire ! ! 
Let us now consider the things to which 
we must give their proper time if we are to 
charge and fire effectually. The things of 
most importance should heme the most 
time. You have seen wherein your super- 
iority consists. You have seen in what 
has been said, that your superiority over 
the older and larger creatures, consists m 
your intellectual, moral,and spiritual nature. 
The schools can teach you how to train your 
mental nature. The moralists can teach 
you how to cultivate your moral nature. 
But the chief mission of this ministry is to 
teach you how to develop into mighty 
magnificence and power, your highest, that 
is your spiritual nature. As all periods in 
the physical world lead up to the human 
period ; so all periods in the human period 
lead up to the spiritual period. 

This is the last, the greatest, the most 
enduring of all periods. We can conceive 
of nothiLg coming after it. Everything is 
preparatory for it. When it is reached 
there remains nothing but to grow eter- 
nally in it. God is the Great SjDirit. 



There remains to us three great questions : 
The time to see God, the time to receive 
God, and the time to lead others to see and 
receive Him. 

I. The time to see God. He has His 
time for revealing Himself. That time is 
not when the world is roaring round you, 
not when leaders in business speak, not 
when princes of politics lift up their voices, 
not when earthly counsellors and scientific 
explorers, and philosophic speculators pre- 
vail. Nor is it when scenes of beauty pass 
before the eyes. Nor when the lovely 
landscape passes before the view. Nor 
when shining stars entrance the 
vision. Nor when the lissom and lovely 
form enchants the heart. Not when you 
are looking or listening through any mat- 
erial medium. Can the microscope reveal 
a star? Can the telescope analyze a mole- 
cule ? No more can you by natural eye or 
ear discern the Lord. The senses of the 
body are for the substances of the world. 
The senses of the spirit are for the sub- 
stances of the spirit. It is therefore when 
the world is shut out. When bodily 
senses are still. When spiritual senses are 
awake. When spiritual senses are waiting 
and watching. When the eye and ear of 
the soul are trained upward and focused 
on the coming of Deity. Then is the time 
to see God. It was for such training Moses 
and Paul spent so long in the solitude of 
Arabia. It was for such focusing that 
Jesus and all His Saints retired from the 
multitudes and spent hours amid caves and 
mountains in prayer. The laws and lenses 
by which you can see God are still the 
same. Change and time never alter an 
immutable condition. Therefore lean tell 
you when you will see God. When you 
say to the things of time and sense, let me 
alone. When you regard not sin in your 
thought, heart or habit. When you train 
the eye of your mind, and ear of your soul 
to look and listen concentratedly for God. 
When you persistently wait and watch for 
His coming. When your whole heart is 
set on seeing His presence. Then He will 
appear in all His charmful. comforting, 



HUMAN TIME. 



103 



strengthening loveliness. When He so 
appears yon will love to linger. The sweet- 
est visions, the tenderest emotions, the 
purest pleasures will enter your life. The 
regal happiness, the fearless joj^, the un- 
stained rapture that will fill and Hood your 
heart, will be the most glorious experience 
possible. You will wonder that you were 
ever fond of tasting the putrid streams of 
sensuous pleasure. You will be astonished 
that you passed by all this infinite enjoy- 
ment and did not know it. You will be so 
glad that you belong to redeemed humanity 
that you will feel like saying Glory! 
Glory ! ! Glory ! ! ! be to God. For although 
"eye (natural) hath not seen, and ear 
(physical) hath not heard, neither have 
entered into the heart (fleshly) of man the 
things God hath prepared for them that 
love Him." (Yet) God hath revealed 
them to its by His Spirit. How logical this 
is, how simple, how sublime ! Infinite Spirit, 
revealing glorious things to finite Spirit. 
Fatherly Spirit, showing to childish spirit 
the things that cheer. You who would 
see God, now see how to see Him. When 
you see Him you will want to receive Him. 
He is so lovely, so tender, true, endearing, 
that you will want to take Him into your 
life and cast your fortunes in with His. 

II. This leads up to another question of 
supreme importance; when to receive Him. 
The best time to receive God is when you 
see Him ; when you see His holiness, 
goodness, mercy, pity and love ; when you 
see Him in His omnipotence, prescience, 
omnipresence, and eternal majesty and 
magnificence ; when you see His greatness 
and His goodness beautifully inter-blend- 
ing and reaching out with open arms of 
tender Fatherhood toward you. Then is 
your time to receive Him. Mark, it will 
do you no good to see God if you do not 
receive Him. To see a lovely treasure does 
you no good unless you receive it. Acres 
of diamonds may be lying round you ; but 
if you do not receive them they are only 
passing pleasures. God has presented 
himself in human form to make it easy for 
you to receive Him. God was too great 



for you to receive in infinitely diffus- 
ive form, and so "He was made flesh and 
dwelt among men as the only begotten of 
the Father, full of grace and truth," " In 
Him was life, and the life was the light of 
men. The light shined in the darkness 
(humanity) and the darkness (humanity) 
comprehended it not. He was in the 
world : and the world knew Him not. He 
came unto His own (the Jews) and His 
own received Him not. But as many as 
received him to them gave He power to 
become the sons of God." Thus, then, 
you perceive that after having broken by 
concentrated prayer through the gloom 
drifts, and having seen God, the next 
important thing to do is to receive Him in 
the Christ, who is His concentered, conflu- 
ent form. Those who receive Christ 
receive God. " He that receiveth Me 
(said Jesus) receiveth Him that sent Me." 
It was when Galilee received Jesus he 
healedits diseases. It was when the disciples 
received Him into the ship that the infuriated 
sea lay calm. It was when the Great Ones 
of all ages received Him that sin and 
sorrow disappeared, and their holiness and 
happiness began to grow. And it will be 
when you receive Jesus as your Saviour 
that you will receive God as your Father 
and the Holy Ghost as your Comforter 
and Guide. It will be when you receive 
Jesus you will begin to realize what great 
things God has done, is doing, and will do 
for you. Then you will understand why 
you are man, and not beast. Then you 
will realize how and why God has placed 
His great love upon you, and why He 
wishes to educate, and refine, and elevate, 
and inspire you. Then you will get 
glimpses of the high and illustrious 
design of your creation, preservation, and 
redemption. Then you will see that that 
design began away back in eternity, before 
chaotic matter married into its various 
families of glorious worlds. Then you will 
gradually, as you become enlightened, 
behold the expansive grandeur of the 
preparations God has made, is making, and 
is going to make in his physical universe 



104 



HUMAN TIME. 



for you. his heir-born children. Then you 
wiH perceive more and more, as you 
become better acquainted with God. that 
all these elaborate, and, one might say, 
infinite, preparations in the various periods 
of cosmic evolution are just for you who 
see and receive your Father, in His Son. 
That you might dwell in loving joy. 
unutterable preparations have been made. 
Your joy is God's joy. To see you happy, 
makes Him happier. During this holiday 
season parents know just a little of hovr 
this is. One of your purest pleasures is to 
see your little ones happy. It may be only 
a few toys, a book, a picture, or sonic 
article of clothing you buy for your little 
darlings. But as you see them enjoy 
in their innocent simplicity, the things you 
have prepared for them, your hearts melt 
with tenderness, your eyes rill with grati- 
tude that the lives of your little ones have 
been spared to you. and that they are 
happy under your care. It may be that 
you have been left alone. The mother or 
the father of your jewels may have been 
taken : but they arc all the dearer to you 
because of the sole responsibility you bear. 
And their welfare is your joy. and their 
happiness your delight. And so. my 
friends, is it with you and God. You 
were orphaned because you had lost your 
mother, innocence. The whole care of 
yau was cast on God, your Father. And 
oh. how minutely and mightily He has pro- 
vided for you. Nothing in the physical 
world has been found wanting. Lift up 
your eyes and look at that physical world. 
Look at the room he has given you in the 
abysses of space. Think of the riches he 
has given you in the ponderous, powerful, 
and countless spheres. See the assurances 
he has given you in the constancy, unique- 
ness, and harmonic reliability of his laws. 
And in all these marvelous natural gifts 
behold but the types of the spiritual splen- 
dors He has for you forever m ore. 

Ah. my dear brother, how can you stay 
away from such a good, loving, glorious 
God as this I How can you have the 
simple hardihood to go into a league with 



His enemies ? How can you live to grieve 
One who has laid out such wondrous love- 
plans for your everlasting welfare *? How 
can you perversely and perseveringly rebel 
against the only One who loves you with 
an everlasting love, and provides for you a 
sumptuous and everlasting provision*/ Ah. 
dear brother, sister, keep Him in exile 
no longer : but empty your heart and 
receive Him to-day. Here is a vessel. It 
is full of clay. You cannot receive any- 
thing else into it so long as it is filled. But 
empty it, and you can fill it with the 
crystals of joy. Like to that vessel is your 
heart. Bring an empty heart and you 
fill then be able to receive a full Saviour. 
And when you receive Him. He will receive 
you. And when you have received Him. 
and He has received you. then you receive 
all His. and He receives all yours. What 
a blessed exchange for you. He gets pov- 
erty, and you get riches. He gets weakness ; 
you get strength. He gets ignorance : 
you get knowledge. He gets darkness : 
you get light. He gets sinfulness ; you 
get holiness. He gets sorrow : you get 
joy. He gets helplessness ; you get 
helpfulness. He gets all that's worth- 
less ; you get all that's worthy. Flow long 
would you require to close up such a con- 
tract as this if it were concerning temporal 
things "? Xot a minute. You would leap 
at it in a second. How much more eagerly 
should you instantly conclude a covenant 
like this concerning eternal things. That 
temporal contract. Death breaks up : this 
eternal covenant. Death ratifies. Indeed. 
Death is the attorney that admits you to the 
opulent inheritance mentioned in the bond. 
" All are vours, for ye are Christ's, and 
Christ is God's." 

III. As there is a time to see and 
receive God, so there is a time to lead 
others to see and receive Him also. You 
will notice that when you are lifted into 
the true spiritual relationship with your 
Father in Jesus, He begins at once to 
honor you. He makes you a co-worker 
as well as a co-heir. Hence, He saves 
unsaved men by saved men. He converts 



HUMAN TIME. 



105 



unconverted people by the mstramentality 
of converted people. Here He unites you 
with Himself in the greatest work going on 
in this universe. He puts this as a prac- 
tical privilege and honor upon you. He 
could convert sinners by the agency of 
angels ; by the winsome phenomena of 
nature ; by the fiery scourgings of law ; 
by blazing out His Gospel in letters on the 
sky ; by thousands of means we may not 
now imagine. But in love to you He has 
not selected any of these mighty means. 
He could send people from Heaven. He 
could deputize messengers from hell to 
warn, and from Heaven to invite. But in 
love for you He has selected you. He tells 
you " He that winneth souls is wise." He 
assures you " they that be wise shall shine 
as the brightness of the firmament, and 
the}' that turn many to righteousness as the 
stars forever and ever." He commands 
you to preach the good news to every 
creature. This high privilege He sets 
before you. He gives you time to do this. 

" To everything there is a time." There 
is a time for this also. That time is very 
near. That time, in a special sense, begins 
next Lord's Day. It is always with us ; 
but in a special sense it is with us, as a 
people, during the first weeks of the Xew 
Year. No people have a right to thank 
God for great things more than you have. 
He has blessed you in a marvelous manner. 
He has blessed you so much in this place, 
that about 3,000 souls, through you, have 
been brought to this altar seeking salvation 
during the past three years. This won- 
derful work is the best preparation for 
the conversion of 8,000 more. He can 
save as many in one year as He saved in 
three years. Let us believe, and fast, and 
pray, and give time and talent, and 
thought and heart, and speech, and money 
to this greatest work, that God may now 
open His Heaven upon us, and deluge us 
with His love and joy, and pour His salva- 
tion out upon the people like a mighty 
tide. For "To everything there is a 
time," " even so come Lord Jesus." Amen. 



Prayer. 

O Thou most flighty, Most Thoughtful, 
Most Loving One. Thou whom in Thy 
wisdom and mercy we are permitted to call 
Father. We adore Thee that before the 
worlds were framed Thou wast thinking 
and planning for us. We adore Thee that all 
worlds and all times have been arranged by 
Thee for our advantage. We thank Thee 
for this magnificent home Thou hast fitted 
up for us here. A home so expansive, 
domed with a roof of starry blue, carpeted 
with a sward of snowy whiteness or of 
variegated emerald. A home whose valleys 
are gardens of productivity, whose hills are 
cabinets of treasures, whose mountains are 
coffers of jewels, whose seas are liquid 
vaults of boundless abundance. Through 
long, lone ages Thou hast been fashioning 
this home. Story upon story Thou hast 
built it, period after period through the 
long watches, and to us countless ages, 
Thou wast working — working with Thy 
heart set on us who were to come. No 
Avords can express our gratitude, no praises 
can speak the glories due Thee, O most 
beautiful, most lovely and loving Father, 
for this terrestrial home. And yet this 
habitation, with all its grandeur and great- 
ness, is only the type, only the symbol, the 
scaffolding of the still better habitation Thou 
art preparing for us. We are exceedingly 
anxious to be fitted for that "habitation of 
Thine." But we know that before we are 
qualified for such heavenly honor, we must 
first be qualified for Thee to dwell in here. 
We must be here made by grace "an hab- 
itation of God through the Spirit." There- 
fore come and dwell in us. Be Thou, the 
sole occupant of these hearts. Cast out all 
that opposes Thee. Slay every sinful affec- 
tion. Take out every root of bitterness. 
Banish every unholy impulse. Kill every 
mean ambition. Slaughter every selfish 
design and desire. Empty us utterly, O 
Lord, and then fill us fully with Thyself. 
Come into our hearts with all the retinue 
of Thy grace. Come in with the glorious 
light, and cheer, and comfort. Come in 



106 



HUH AX TIME. 



with Thy tranquilizing promises, peace and 
power. Come in with all Thy wisdom and 
prudence, and purity. Come in, O blessed 
Father, and absorb us quite. Monopolize us 
wholly. Occupy every secret recess of our 
feelings. Dwell in every department of 
our thoughts. Live in every tibre of our 
bodies. Let there be no placo in us for 
any competitor. Leave no room in us for 
any kind of sin. As the river floods, and 
tills and overflows its bed, so, O Lord God, 
flood, and till and overflow us. We are 
unworthy of any such honor as we ask, O 
Father. But we have One who is worthy. 
We ask in His name. It is Thy dear Son 
and our dear Savior. He is worthy and 
we come to Thee in Him and implore Thee 
to live in us through Him. as Thou didst 
live in Him. Live in us, reign over us. 
train us. develop, educate and inspire us. 
Mould and fashion us until Thou hast 
made us like Thyself in temper and spirit. 
Then will we not only be an habitation 
for Thee, but Thou wilt be an habitation 
for us. Thou will screen us from the tem- 
pests. Thou wilt save us from satan, sin 
and sinners. Thou will preserve us in 
trial and bring us off triumphant over 
every temptation. And, OLord God, make 
us good for something during the short 
time we have to remain in this world. 
Make us good business men. good trades- 
men, good workers in whatever sphere 
Thou has placed us in worldly matters. 
But above all make us good Christians. 
We beseech Thee to bless our bodies. We 
implore Thee to illuminate our minds, but 
especially we entreat Thee to bless and re- 
bless our souls. Furnish them with every 
accomplishment. Sift us. search us. try us. 
prove us. and wherever Thou dost see an 
imperfection in us. deliver us from 
it. Wherever Thou dost find a 
weakness, strengthen us there. Wher- 
ever Thou dost discover any want of 
grace and comeliness adorn us there. And 
then Lord, give us power. Not necess- 
arily the power of worldly wealth nor 
honor, nor fame, but the power of the 
Holy Spirit. The power of the Pentecost. 



We need this power for the great work 
Thou hast assigned us. We require this 
power in the soul-saving business so soon 
to begin again in this Temple. O Lord 
God. bless us all together with this power. 
All the officers and members of the 
Temple till with this holy power, that we 
may move with one step and voice, and 
mind and heart, for the salvation of the 
lost. And, O Father, bless the unconverted. 
There are so many of them and they are 
so needy that they perish by thousands 
for want of what Thou art lonoingto give. 
O open their eyes that they may see Thee. 
Open their hearts that they may receive 
Thee, and so order then lives that they may 
lead many others to see and receive Thee 
also. And now bless this service. Bless 
all that may be said and sung. Bless all 
that are here assembled. Let no one re- 
tire without a personal, appropriate bless- 
ing. There may be some very hard and 
peculiar cases here, but if they will open 
up toward Thee. Thou wilt save them and 
they shall go home happy in Thy love. 
To everything there is a time. This is the 
time for them to come home from the pro- 
digal's land. If they do Thou wilt meet 
them with compassion. Thou wilt take 
them to Thine infinite arms of tenderest 
love. Thou wilt take them to Thy home 
and give them robe, and ring, and regal 
welcome. And now our Father, let Thy 
loving Spirit accompany and apply Thy 
loving word. TTe deliver it in fear and 
trembling. But do Thou deliver it in 
power and majesty. Illuminate us while 
we speak. Impress and instruct us while 
we hear, and may many feel that their 
time to seek and serve Thee has come, and. ♦ 
all the praises shall be to Thee, Father, 
Son and Spirit. Amen. 



Missionary Sermon.* 

" Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." — Rom. x : 18. 



THE first Methodist Missionary Con- 
ference was not held in " Old Foun- 
dry," London, 1744, by John Wes- 
ley, but in the house of Gaius of Corinth, 
in 58, by St. Paul. The members of that 
Corinthian conference understood the 
commission, " Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the Gospel to every creature," 
better than even the immediate disciples 
of our Lord. Breaking through the nar- 
row circumscriptions of the Jew, they 
grasped the meaning of their Master's 
words. Their battle-cry was, "Neither 
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncir- 
cumcision, but a new creature." Their 
motto to " send their sound out into all 
the earth, and their words unto the ends of 
the world." They had assembled in con- 
ference to consider the best methods of 
accomplishing this grand achievement. 
Like yourselves, they were there from 
various parts of the field : Timotheus, from 
the battle-grounds of Lystra ; Gaius, from 
the transforming scenes of Derbe ; Aris- 
tarchus, from Ephesus, 'neath the shade of 
Coressus and Prion ; Secundus from the 
broad military region of Macedonia ; So- 
pater, from the Scripture-searching church 
of Berea; Titus, like a presiding elder 
from official ranging round the diplomatic 
forts of the Mediterranean ; Luke, beloved 
historiographer and physician, from the 
fertile banks of the Orontes, crowned 
with its hill-encircled Antioch; Trophimus, 
with Grecian ardor, from the Ephesian 



shrine of Diana; Justus, to the manner 
born, was with them as a Corinthian con- 
vert ; Sosthenes, the saved chief of the 
synagogue, was included in their delibera- 
tions ; Tertius, the Roman amanuensis, 
was a member of the assembly, as were 
Quartus, the Italian, who saluted the 
Church at Rome, and Stephanus, the first 
of the saved in Achaia; Silas, who had 
sung and prayed with St. Paul while their 
feet were "fast in the stocks " during the 
earthquake rupture of the Philippian 
dungeon, was there, and Gaius, the hospi- 
table host of this Methodist missionary 
company. 

These were men who had set them- 
selves upon the "cast" and would stand 
the danger of the " die." They had " haz- 
arded their lives for the Lord Jesus," and 
were prepared to do so again. And now, 
after over eighteen hundred years of vicis- 
situdes and victories, in like manner (we 
trust) you have come together in this your 
six and thirtieth session, in a land un- 
dreamed of then, and amid environments 
which the keenest apostolic eye could not 
descry, to consider the same great issue. 
From different parts you, too, have come ; 
some from the splendid scenery of the 
county of Sussex on the north; some 
from the county of Passaic, with its roll- 
ing landscapes and rising manufactures ; 
some from Bergen, bounding with its 
Palisades the younger and richer Rhine ; 
others from Warren, looking out on the 



*Preached before the Newark Annual Conference, and furnished for publication by request of the 
Conference, 



112 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



the historic Delaware and holding fondly 
on its breast our collegiate school ; others 
from Hunterdon, "braided with fertile 
farms and dappled with orchards of blush- 
ing fruit ; others from Somerset and Mid- 
dlesex, over whose boundaries you greet 
your brothers of Central Jersey. Certain 
are from Staten Island, with its velvet 
lawns and iridescent arbors, charming as- 
piring immigrants and returning tourists 
as they sail through the gateway of the 
nation ; certain are from Union, nestling 
in her bosom the vestal Elizabeth, making 
such noble protest against race-track 
gambling. Not a few are from the up- 
lands of Morris, lifting toward the sky 
the school of the prophets like Judean 
hills of old. Still others are present from 
Essex, abloom with its urban Oranges and 
its Newark, aflame with vast variety of 
industrial arts. 

Befriended by kindly Gaiuses, we are 
here assembled in the Capital of Hudson, 
yoked by the river to the Corinth of our 
spacious Commonwealth. We are all 
here charged with the same imperial com- 
mission which inspired the Corinthian 
conference to send the Gospel "sound 
into all the earth and its words unto the 
ends of the world. " Our manner of pro- 
ceeding is also similar — the kindly greet- 
ing as we meet, the opening hymn, 

" High on His everlasting throne, 
The King of saints His work surveys." 

as announced by our native bishop, for 
whom we all are grateful; or, 

And are we vet alive, 

And see each other's face ? 
Glory and praise to Jesus give 

For His redeeming grace. 



Preserved by power divine 

To full salvation here, 
Again in Jesus' praise we join, 

And in His sight appear. 

" What troubles have we seen, 

What conflicts have we passed. 
Fighting without, and fears within, 

Since we assembled last ! 
But out of all the Lord 

Hath brought us by His love : 
And still He doth His help afford. 

And hides our life above." 

After some such hymn sung by that 
Corinthian conference would come the 
prayer, mingled with tears of joy; then 
the delightful supper in remembrance 
of the Lord ; the presentation of reports 
from the several fields ; the consideration 
of plans for future guidance; the ex- 
pression of resolutions against disorders 
of the times ; the appointment of commit- 
tees to execute conclusions reached ; the 
preaching, probably by Paul himself, to 
enlighten all minds and fire all hearts ; 
the memorials of departed comrades who 
had fallen in the battle with shouts of 
victory leaping from lips of love ; the 
drafting of such epistles as that to the 
Galatians and Romans in the focused 
light concentered by the conference ; then 
the preparation and reading of the ap- 
pointments, and the solemn departure to 
the several " regions beyond" with min- 
gled sorrow, joy and love, each man hav- 
ing in his heart the determination to send 
the " sound out into all the earth, and the 
words unto the ends of the world.'' 

Our Conference programme is so similar 
that it may be said to be almost the same. 
Some Churches pridefully boast of " apos- 
tolic succession;" but the truth is, we 
come nearer the methods (and — may I 
hope ? — spirit) of the apostolic Church 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



113 



than any other now on earth. It was 
itinerant; so are we. It viewed rubic and 
ritual as of secondary account ; so do we. 
It had for its magnificent motive the sal- 
vation of the world ; so have we. It 
moved in the van of progress, leading the 
best thoughts and inspiring the best feel- 
ing of its time ; that is what we do. It 
always made a stir into whatever com- 
munity it came, and was guilty of the 
charge of " turning the world upside 
down ; " that is precisely what we do 
when faithful to our duty. The parallel- 
isms are so complete that they demon- 
strate us to be identical in purpose, plan, 
and spirit, though separated by eighteen 
hundred years. 

But if there are striking similarities be- 
tween us now and them then, there are 
also pleasant contrasts. Then their terri- 
tory was bounded by the Roman empire, 
and chiefly strung upon that wedding- 
ring of ancient nations, the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. Then this one went to 
Egypt and that one to Libya ; this one to 
Syria and that one to Cilicia ; this to 
Pamphylia and that to Lycia ; these to 
Caria and those to Lydia ; these to Mysia 
and those to Thracia; these to Macedonia 
and those to Achaia ; some to Italy and 
others to Spain • some to Sicily and others 
to Africa ; some to Cyprus and others to 
Crete ; while a few daring souls would 
cross the mountains and invade -the 
wild regions of Phrygia, Cappadocia, 
Bithynia, and Galatia. But by the pro- 
gress of preparation for the Gospel of 
salvation by the Gospel of mechanics 
our missionary organization embraces 
the globe. They were limited, we 
are free ; they were provincials, we are 
cosmopolites. In us the prophecy, " Many 



shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall 
be increased," is fulfilled. Exploration 
has laid the world open. There is no 
other great land discoverable. America 
is God's great geographic ultimatum to 
the race. This ultimatum will not fail. 
The whole earth is evangelizable. There 
is no insuperable blockade in any land. 
The good-news sound rises every morning 
with the sun and assumes its westward 
way, " rejoicing like a strong man to run 
a race." Over the Alleghanies it takes its 
course, across the Ohio vale, over the 
populated prairies, over the vast valley of 
the Mississippi. On with the van of in- 
coming millions, up the slopes of the 
Rocky Mountains ; on with the pioneer 
past shining Shasta, waking the Pacific 
coast from Patagonia to Alaska. 

Nor is it hushed by the vast volume of 
the floods, but forward into Hawaii and 
other Pacific-embosomed isles. On over 
the sea-begemming islands of polite 
Japanese, who turn from burnished mir- 
rors of Shinto and bronze figures of 
Buddha to listen to its accents. On over 
the four hundred millions of stagnant 
Chinese and hermetic Coreans who look 
from ghastly genii of Lao-tze and god- 
less Shu-King of Confucius to hearken 
to its voices. On over the sparkling dome 
of the world down into India, rousing the 
dreamy Hindoos, who turn from the verses 
of the Vedas, legends of the Bhagavadgita, 
and myths of the Ramayana to re- 
ceive its messages. On swells the sound 
over the regions desecrated by the Turk 
to restore the acres hallowed by the 
sacred feet of the Son of God. The 
stirring shriek of its mechanical heralds 
are again heard in the winding vales 
of Palestine from Jaffa to Jerusalem, 



114 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



recapturing apostolic fortresses, turning 
Mohammedans from the cold crescent and 
cruel scimiter to the warm sun-floods that 
flow from the cross. On goes the sound 
through the very heart of Africa in the 
trails of Livingstone, Stanley, and Taylor, 
and that swarthy Queen arises from her 
fetiches to present to the Christ her 
heart, and to the Church her sword. 

This same sound is sweeping and re- 
sweeping European nations, bringing im- 
perious tyrants down, commanding abso- 
lutism to cease, lifting the people on the 
shield of constitutional liberty, and trans- 
forming the liberated masses into a 
democracy of God, whose thoughts and 
feelings are bound by silken cords of love 
to his beneficent and eternal throne. 
Thus as the sun, rising up out of his 
amber chamber, penetrates the gloom, 
thaws frost-imprisoned fields, melts ice- 
bound rivers, floods all lands with light, 
charms the earth, kisses forests into 
emerald, caresses landscapes into bloom, 
and wakes the world into song, so this 
Gospel sound goes into every realm, call- 
ing upon the gloom-enfolded millions to 
come forth from their dreary sorrows and 
blush with a beauty and radiance divine. 
It binds up the broken-hearted, proclaims 
to the captives liberty, opens the prison 
to the bound, announces the acceptable 
year of the Lord, comforts those that 
mourn, gives the oil of joy for sadness and 
the garment of praise for the spirit of 
heaviness. Thus this sacred sound, laden 
with the love of God, daily goes around 
the circling globe, visiting the listening, 
longing nations with the words, " Arise, 
shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory 
of the Lord is risen upon thee." 

How different the circumstances of those 



and these ! The members of that Corin- 
thian conference were socially ostracized 
and politically proscribed. Their suffer- 
ings were more than unsupported nature 
could endure. The field experience of one 
of the members gives a clew to their con- 
dition. It is that of St. Paul, who must 
have been as much respected as any : " In 
stripes above measure, in prisons more 
frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five 
times received I forty stripes save one. 
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was 
I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a 
night and a day I have been in the deep ; 
in journeyings often, in perils of waters, 
in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own 
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in 
perils in the city, in perils in the wilder- 
ness, in perils in the sea, in perils among 
false brethren ; in weariness and painful- 
lness, in watchings often, in hunger and 
thirst, in fastings often, in cold and naked- 
ness." Yet, on account of the strong- 
consolations of God within him, and the 
glory of the Christ he was preaching, he 
rose superior to it all and flung out with 
beautiful abandon this splended challenge 
to the world : " Who shall separate us 
from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, 
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 
nakedness, or peril, or sword ? We are 
killed all the day long ; we are accounted 
as sheep for the slaughter." 

But what recked they for the duress of 
the duumvirs and the lashes of the lictors 
while basking in the bliss of God and 
feeding on the love of Christ ? Persecu- 
tors and persecutions were as but hissing 
serpents beneath their soaring fight. And 
so their spokesman, flushed with the joy 
of superlative triumph, breaks out into 
the exultant strain for the whole confer- 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



115 



ence : " In all these things we are more 
than conquerors through him that loved 
us." And indescribably mightier forces 
cannot sever us from Jesus. "For I am 
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor and other creature" 
(that may in terrible and unknown 
strength be resident in invisible abysses) 
" shall be able to separate us from the love 
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." 

Thus the gauntlet of* defiance they flung 
down before the universe. Let him take 
it up who dare. They knew the love of 
God is supreme in power, "'mightiest in 
the mightiest;" that no power could 
wrench them from the only Almighty 
Lover. Thus they triumphed abundantly 
in this invincibility of spirit, a spirit 
which rose as high above that of an Alex- 
ander, Caesar, Xapoleon, or any other car- 
nal conqueror as heaven rises above the 
earth. In this spirit they went forth from 
that Corinthian conference sounding the 
" glad tidings of great joy unto all people" 
round their several circuits, glorying in 
afflictions that the power of Christ might 
all the more rest upon them, dealing pru- 
dently the while ; " giving no offense in 
anything, that the ministry be not blamed : 
but in all things approving themselves as 
the ministers of God, in much patience, 
in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 
in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, 
in labors, in watchings, in fastings ; by 
pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, 
by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love 
unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the 
power of God, by the armor of righteous- 
ness on the right hand and on the left, by 



honor and dishonor, by evil report and 
good report : as deceivers, and yet true ; 
as unknown, and yet well known ; as dy- 
ing, and, behold, they live j as chastened, 
and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet alway 
rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; 
as having nothing, and yet possessing all 
things." 

This was the spirit with which these 
pioneers of that first Methodist missionary 
conference entered on their work. There 
was not a cringing sycophant among them. 
They were original, independent, manly, 
aggressive, fearless and formidable. They 
drew their commission from headquarters. 
They knew the Master had marked them 
for his own, and they went forth against 
all opposition with the battle-shout, "From 
henceforth let no man trouble us : for we 
bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord 
Jesus." 

The times are changed ; the circum- 
stances are transformed. A new era is 
upon us. They went afoot ; we fly in 
palace cars. They faced the hurricane ; 
we are fanned by the zephyr. They met 
cruelty, resentment and violence ; we meet 
appreciation, co-operation and love. The 
world is beginning to bloom with the 
fruits of redemption. The danger now is, 
not that we shall be ruined by adversity, 
but spoiled by prosperity. And therefore, 
while we may not experience the same 
persecutions, nevertheless, if we do our 
work as well as they, we need the same 
most blessed Spirit. The opportunities 
never were so great. The responsibilities 
are commensurate with the opportunities. 
Our duties may not be so desperate, but 
they are more intricate and delicate. Our 
services may not need so much physical 
endurance, but they do require as much 
moral courage. 



116 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



Our mission may not lie in as direct 
headlong intensity, but it does lie along 
many more outbranchings and subtle dif- 
ferentiations. The sociological, scientific 
and educational problems of the race have 
become much more complex. The benev- 
olent enterprises of the Church have 
greatly multiplied; Church and world 
alike demand an ardor, skill, patience and 
persistence proportionate to their prog- 
ress. This leads us to portray a few of 
these progressions, which are preparatory 
and prophetic. We must know them and 
use them if we rise to the majesty of our 
mission. They are the offspring of 
Christianity, and are intended to produce 
a still more glorious progeny. 

1. This Gospel has evolved and is 
evolving great governmental transfor- 
mations. Xo Xero sits on any throne to 
slaughter saints on account of Christianity. 
There is not even a George III who dare 
force war upon his Christian colonies. 
Unlimited monarchies have fallen, abso- 
lutism is dying out, .tyrannical rulers are 
curtailed; human liberty, equality of 
rights, and self-government are rising into 
pre-eminence ; the people are becoming 
the rulers ; the masses are pressing to- 
ward universal control; man lias dis- 
covered his own importance. The govern- 
mental drift is toward fraternity. The 
character of this fraternit}* will be formed 
by its factors, the character of these 
factors will be shaped by the forces that 
beat in upon them. The province of the 
ministry is to turn upon them the heavenly 
forces. The ministers of God must come 
to the front in governmental matters. 
^Mercenary corruptionists must be re- 
manded to the rear. The legislation of 
God must have sway in the legislatures 



of men. The doctrine of the cross is the 
basis of government. " He that will be 
greatest, let him become servant of all." 

Protestant ministers are too averse to 
proclaiming this principle of statesman- 
ship; they founded and. fostered this 
commonwealth ; their instructions and in- 
spirations must conserve it. " Ye are the 
salt of the earth,'" said the Saviour ; " Ye 
are the light of the world," cried the 
Redeemer. Xew Jersey just now needs 
that salt and this light. A proper place 
to put in the salt is the political primary ; 
a popular place to shed this light is the 
Christian pulpit. Had this been done as 
it ought there could have been no games- 
ters' ring in Trenton violating the prin- 
ciples of government by legalizing vice. 
But some seem afraid of besmirching 
themselves by association with political 
tricksters ; they prefer to play the role of 
ecclesiastical exquisites. Ah, sirs, the 
time has come when we must mingle with 
the people and lead the way to the aboli- 
tion of their governmental vexations ! 
The multitudes are for the first time free 
to think, feel, and act on legislative pro- 
blems. The popes used to operate on 
kings ; we are to operate on people. This 
has always been true of the Christian 
pulpit ; it is more eminently true now 
that the people are enfranchised. It is 
our business to tell them how to think, 
what to feel and do. Ring out, then, the 
Gospel sound till its resonance is heard 
by every citizen, felt by every voter, and 
heeded by every official. Let its boom 
and clang and thunder fulminate in every 
senate, resound and reverberate in every 
hall of legislation, till the clamorous 
millions shall know " if the truth shall 
make them free they shall be free indeed." 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



117 



Their passage to transition lias disim- 
prisoned their thinking faculties and 
thrown them into a state of receptivity. 
Now is the time to send the saving sound 
into the opening thoughts of the seething 
nations, for the tyranny of corrupt majori- 
ties may be made more disastrous than 
even the assumptions of absolute kings. 

2. Another new opportunity which also 
involves a weighty responsibility is our 
educational condition. In apostolic times 
education was the heritage of the few; 
now it is the fortune of the multitude. 
Then only one in a thousand could read; 
now only one in a thousand cannot. This 
affords a great conveyance for the Gospel 
sound. We need, however, to use it 
wisely. The abuse of reading may be as 
much against us as the use of reading is 
for us. The novel and the newspaper are 
now in the lead. Many cannot " come at 
Jesus for the press,'* especially the Sun- 
day press. 

Nevertheless, the press is a product of 
Christianity, and should be one of the 
great conductors of the truth. Its leaves 
are to be " for the healing of the nations." 
The province of the pulpit is to pour 
itself out through the press. The pulpit 
should sa}^ things so important and in- 
spiring that the press must print them. 
The world monopolizes the press. This 
is because the pulpit does not see how to 
use it. Who can blame journalists who 
will not print and people who will not 
read long, dusty, dry dissertations about 
people who lived thousands of years ago ? 
Let the pulpit stop dealing in worn-out 
platitudes of dead generations, and begin 
to deal with fundamental truths and the 
generation now living, and journalists 
will flock about it like bees around honey 



flowers on a July morning. Living truths 
for living men is what the world wants, 
and the pulpit that makes this a specialty 
will be heard far beyond its limits of 
local habitation. The back seats of some 
pulpits are the Rocky Mountains, and of 
others the Himalaya ranges. But the 
projecting principles that send their words 
so far are living lightnings and leaping 
thunders, and not the dying echoes of de- 
parted centuries. The Lord said to Isaiah, 
" Take thee a great roll, and write in it 
with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal- 
hash-baz" — meaning "hasten the spoil, 
rush on the prey." This is perhaps an 
appropriate name for the press as it now 
is. But if we will only grow, as God in- 
tends us, into a race of pulpit giants, and 
flood the world with the truths that people 
need now to live on, the stretching out of 
the wings of the press w T ill " fill the 
breadth of thy land, Immanuel," and 
its name be changed to Tsahal Shalom, 
" the lovely voice of peace." 

A compositor was recently coverted in 
Newark while setting up a " Sermon 
Against Anti-Christ," and evidences are 
abundant that the truth of God is so vital 
that it strikes fire from even the cold 
teeth of the type. 

St. Paul told Timothy to bring his old 
war cloak from Troas, and the books, 
"but especially the parchments." Had 
it not been for his parchments we should 
probably have known no more about him 
than we do about Trophimus. But through 
them his mighty messages are sounding- 
more aboundingly to-day than when they 
were written. And if he were living 
now he would see in the press his great 
opportunity. He would use it as the 
great outbranching trumpet to send his 



118 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



words swelling on to "the ends of the 
world." 

Since he is not here ; let us who are 
do what we know he would do. We need 
the press to spiritualize the Sabbath ; we 
need it to sweep the saloon out of poli- 
tics and off the earth ; we need it to sup- 
press licentiousness and anarchy ; we 
need it to evangelize politics and distrib- 
ute congested wealth ; we need it to 
guard our public schools and found and 
sustain our seats of learning. And. if Ave 
to it prove true and it prove true to us. 
by the help of Heaven, before another 
year we shall clean the Augean stables 
that from Trenton. Gloucester and Gut- 
tenburg have been sending their vicious 
odors over all the nation. 

3. Another great facility that carries 
with it commensurate responsibility is 
seen in our rapid transit systems. If the 
forces of nature are the hands by which 
God governs the worlds, the facilities of 
travel are the arms by which he is bring- 
ing the nations together. We are getting 
very near him in the electric currents 
that drive our street chariots. He is plac- 
ing the hitherto hidden forces under our 
control, as a father places the implements 
with which he conducts his business in 
the hands of his grown-up children. 

Science and salvation are two rivers 
from the same fountain. They are to 
blend and broaden into one glorious ocean. 
The course of that ocean is ever outward 
and upward. Science turns the powers of 
nature to man's service, salvation turns 
the powers of man to the use of science-. 
The rapid transit system flying through- 
out the earth contains more than a hint to 
the Christian. It is a scientific cry to the 
Church to hasten. 



Every time an ocean racer sets out from 
yonder pier with colors flying and whistle 
shrieking she cries back to the American 
Churches, " Hasten ! " Every time a new 
submarine cable is laid and commercial 
and social news go pulsing under the 
seas there comes up from the deep the 
sonorous sound, " Hasten ! hasten ! ! 
Whenever a new railroad is made and the 
iron horse rushes on with headlong speed 
sending up his shrill neigh to the sky the 
burden of the scream to the sons of God, 
is Hasten ! hasten ! ! hasten ! ! 

It seems as though the Son of man 
looks from his throne on his halting 
Church and says : " You have had nearly 
nineteen hundred y ears to ' go into all the 
world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature,' and yet such is thy tardiness 
that scarcely one-seventh of my redeemed 
have come to me. And now I will give 
thee facilities to expedite thy commission. 
Behold ! I construct great ocean couriers 
between continent and continent, nation 
and nation. Behold ! I make lines for 
words to run like lightning over land and 
under sea. Behold ! I make flying palaces 
to speed from city to city and from country 
to country with messages. Behold ! I 
connect the centers of thought with the 
words of thy mouth, so that a brave word 
fitly spoken to-night can be over all the 
world b} 7 the morning. 

" Awake, awake, Zion ! Arise, arise, 
my redeemed ! Send out my heralds. 
Send them out by the thousand. Send 
them out aflame with glad tidings of great 
joy. And above all things, hasten ! 
hasten ! ! hasten ! ! ! hasten ! ! ! ! for 'the 
great day of the Lord is near, is near, and 
hasteth greatly ! ' " 

As the tree prepared to blow suddenly 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



119 



covers itself with blossoms, so the world, 
already ripe, will swiftly put on its bridal 
bloom. 

4. The historic record Christianity has 
made is most favorable for the conveyance 
of the Gospel sound unto all the earth. 
The members of the Corinthian con- 
ference had but little historic Christianity 
behind them, and what little they had 
was quite unfavorable. Their leader had 
been crucified as a miserable malefactor ; 
their comrades were ignored as poor, im- 
provident outcasts ; their messages were 
branded as blasphemy by the Jews, as 
foolishness by the Greeks, as treason by 
the Romans. They themselves were ac- 
counted as wandering vagrants to be 
stoned by the mob, lashed by the duumvirs, 
and spurned and hooted by every man of 
reputation. 

The flowers of the cross had not yet be- 
gun to blush, the fruits had not com- 
menced to round into form ; the whole 
system, to the outsider, looked like a de- 
lusion of witlings or an invention of 
knaves. And so its adherents were 
labeled impostors to be aspersed by the 
slander of the malicious and cut down by 
the sword of the assassin. 

But now Christianity has made a re- 
cord. That record is unparalleled in 
history. Its sway has increased till two- 
thirds of the earth are under its govern- 
ment. Its converts have multiplied till 
the best part of the race are proud of its 
name. Its humanities eclipse those of the 
antique Egyptian, the celebrated Zoroas- 
trian, the graceful Greek, the legal Roman, 
the liberty-loving Teuton, and the theo- 
cratic Jew. Its enterprises leave behind 
afar those of humane Buddhism, subtle 
Shintooism, conservative Confucianism, 



brilliant Brahman ism, fiery Parseeism, 
and monotheistic Mohammedanism. Its 
charities have left in the shade those of 
every other form of belief, and its ad- 
vancing utilitarianism and beauty are the 
hope and wonder of the awakening world. 
Draw a circle around all the great powers 
of science, art, literature, wealth, taste, 
and reforms that have proved of practical 
and progressive benefit to mankind, and 
you will find Christianity almost co- 
extensive with that circle. All outside of 
it may be scanned as curiosities, but can 
scarcely be regarded with serious con- 
sideration, except as showing the frivolity 
and folly of man. It thus has demon- 
strated itself to be the fittest, and, accord- 
ing to the announcements of even skepti- 
cal science, is therefore destined to uni- 
versal dominion. Such are the superiori- 
ties of the Christian system when placed 
beside other systems and surveyed from 
the view-point of the present life. If 
such excellences are surpassing when 
studied from what we see in this world, 
they become stupendously transcending 
when viewed in the lights of the world to 
come. The range and sweep of these are 
so immense as to forbid even a glimpse on 
this occasion. To these over-vaulting 
superiorities the missionary can now 
direct the world and demand a surrender 
in the name of common sense. 

Millions of excited orientals are stirred 
by the dawning vision of riches, power, 
and glory streaming from the bosom of 
the Church in the West. They are object 
lessons that shine like the stars. History, 
too, is demonstrating that every dis- 
covery of science rightly understood is a 
child of Christianity that weaves fresh 
garlands for its benignant mother. The 



120 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



discoveries of astronomy magnify her ; 
the revelations of geology illustrate her ; 
the researches of archaeology enrich her ; 
the deductions of sociology glorify her ; 
while the correlation of forces, whether in 
the realm of matter or of mind, amplify 
and enthrone her. These new discoveries 
become a blast to swell the trumpet note 
of the Church as it marshals the world 
onward in its grand career of progress. 
They are a mighty trumpet call to the 
whole earth to join the illustrious march 
in which the Christ is leading the hosts 
of humanity on to their glorious millen- 
nial future. There may be made to come 
forth through these modern missionary 
mechanics by the might of the Holy Ghost 
such a " rushing mighty wind " as shall 
not only fill every upper Jerusalem cham- 
ber, but as shall sweep through all the 
souls of the sons and daughters of men 
with a divine illumination from "cloven 
tongues of fire." 

The world's first Parliament of Ke- 
ligions, to be held .next September, in 
Chicago, may, if wisely managed, be the 
beginning of this. The like was never 
known before : Buddhist scholars, Brah- 
manic teachers, Confucian representatives, 
Parsee worshipers, Mohammedan preach- 
ers, Jewish rabbis, and Christian orators, 
all coming together to consider the Center 
of the religious unity of mankind. We 
anticipate this with the utmost interest ; 
we look upon it as part of the plan that is 
drawing the nations forward in their 
transit unto Jesus. So let it be. Let this 
Parliament of Comparative Religion go 
on. Let this cosmopolitan inquiry by 
comparison and contrast be complete. 
Christianity will lose nothing and gain 
everything by turning on the light from 



every radiating point. In her native 
grandeur she shall stand forth easily 
queen. All other methods of regenerat- 
ing men will be overshadowed by her 
record and eclipsed by her brightness as 
the sun pales the stars by his rising glory. 
See what she is telling, and then show 
how this can be otherwise — telling of the 
love of our Father and our God ; telling 
of the Christ he sent to save ; of the 
Spirit he gives to comfort ; of sin that 
works human woe ; of salvation that 
saves from sin ; of pardon for the past, 
power for the present, and hope for the 
future ; of victory over darkness and de- 
spair ; of triumph over death and destruc- 
tion ; of life, love, and glory in the im- 
mortality so near. See what she is doing, 
and then wonder how she can be sur- 
passed — enfranchising man, emancipating 
woman, nursing the sick, adopting the 
orphan, instructing the ignorant, inspiring 
the failing, lifting the fallen, guarding the 
defenseless, guiding the erring, reclaiming 
the lost, cheering the forsaken, enriching 
the poor, sustaining the brave, fostering 
the noble, casting a sacred halo around 
the innocence of childhood, conducting 
humanity up to maturity, supporting it 
as it descends into the shadows, and 
shedding an aureole of hope over the 
somber regions of the grave. Then on let 
her go and fill this whole world with the 
strains of the truth till she shall have 
stopped man's wild despair and hung his 
hopes on heaven. 

The order comes for a Liberty Bell to 
rouse the Columbus Exposition. It is to 
be made of contributions of fine fusible 
historic metals — gold, silver, bronze, cop- 
per, to endow it with far and sweet re- 
sounding tone. It will likely be the rich- 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



121 



est-tongued bell that ever tolled tidings to 
the world. After it has charmed the city 
of the inland sea and visited the battle- 
fields of liberty in its own land, it is to 
pass from place to place throughout the 
world as a missionary of freedom ringing- 
out under every sky, " Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, good will 
toward men ! " Like unto that bell each 
one of you may accumulate elements in 
yourselves of most noble sound, gathered, 
fused and cast into sweetest, farthest 
resounding tone. Then, with tongues 
touched to fit the lofty strain, striking 
forth redeeming notes upon the masses 
round, your words shall not be local, but 
shall be caught up and carried on in ever- 
echoing cadences till they have gone " un- 
to all the earth" and visited " the ends of 
the world." 

The propulsive resonance of your words 
shall carry them not only forward to the 
utmost limits of earth, but the utmost 
boundaries of time. Aye, more ; they 
shall become a part of the blest triumph- 
ant song that, through eternity, shall 
celebrate the victory of our Immanuel 
over sin, and death, and hell. No power 
can stop the career of Gospel words 
spoken from a heart of fire and by a tongue 
of flame. 

Gnostics have tried to stop them in their 
earlier career ; papists tried to stop them 
later on; atheists, deists, skeptics, rational- 
ists, infidels and antichrists, of every land 
and time, have fought with the ferocity of 
tigers to assassinate them in their course. 

Demons, too, under the captaincy of 
their chief, have led. legions to the charge 
to slay the words spoken by the sons of 
God. But on through the clouds of smoke 
and cries of carnage these words have 



gone over every sea and into every land. 
And on they will go, because 'tis Heaven's 
will. Higher critics imagine it of marvel- 
ous importance to find by whom, when, 
where and why each part of each book 
was written. They make much of Elo- 
histic and Jehovistic Genesis, and pre- 
and post-exilian Isaiah. We have had 
higher critics many times before, and 
never once (since the completion of the 
canon) could they in their favor secure 
the universal consensus of scholarly opin- 
ion. I predict it will be so again. But, 
in any case, the words of God are too vital 
to be waylaid by critics. Critics might 
as well try to stop the shining of the sun 
by pointing to the spots on his photo- 
sphere as to avert the shining of the 
Christ through this book, because there 
are evidences of human weakness here. 
It is enough that the sun shines by the 
Almighty fiat for our comfort, and is 
going to stay till he has fulfilled his mis- 
sion. It is sufficient that the " words" of 
the glorious Gospel also gleam and glow 
by the same omnipotent authority, and 
are going to sound and shine till they 
have accomplished their most merciful de- 
sign. 

Experience of their power, and not lit- 
erary criticism, demonstrates their divin- 
ity. As a well-furnished banquet pro- 
duces a satisfactory experience in a hungry 
man who partakes, so these well-furnished 
words produce a satisfactory experience 
in every hungry soul that appropriates. 
This is the record of hundreds of millions 
who have made the experiment. The one 
mission of the ministry is to multiply 
such experiences. That is what we are 
here for. We have no other business ; we 
must not think of any other. Heaven's 



122 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



plan is to save the unsaved by the saved. 
The constitution of God's kingdom is 
such that it cannot save itself without 
saving others. The key-note is, Be saved 
and save. The tree that bears not is to be 
hewn down. The Church that sends not 
out the words will soon have no words to 
send. The laws of nature and of grace 
are nicely balanced. God's way of making 
things is to make them make each other. 
How, then, can we as a Conference send 
out God's words, and so make saints of 
sinners ? 

1. We must appropriate these words to 
ourselves, and assimilate them till they 
become a part of our own souls. The 
Lord said to Ezekiel, "Eat this roll, and 
go speak unto the house of Israel." 
" Then did I eat it," saith the prophet ; 
" and it was in my mouth as honey for 
sweetness." The felicity of the speaking 
lay in the eating and consequent absorp- 
tion. Jeremiah discovered the same un- 
alterable law : " Thy words were found, 
and I did eat them ; and thy word was 
unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine 
heart." Personal appropriation produces 
assimilation; assimilation creates the joy ; 
the joy constitutes the strength; the 
strength sends the words. King David 
was in the secret when he prayed, " Ke- 
store unto me the joy of thy salvation," 
and added, "Then shall I teach trans- 
gressors thy ways, and sinners shall be 
converted unto thee." Jesus Himself was 
the " Word " in the words. He has raised 
us up to represent Himself. We are to be 
incarnate words. Having become such 
by incorporation of the truth till every 
fiber is vibrant, then with fire-touched 
tongues we are to pour the clear, concen- 
trated words into other lives ; into the 



hearts of church members first, till they 
incorporate as we have done, and burn to 
tell to others. This is the Messianic, 
the apostolic, the Wesleyan method. 
Every converted man and woman is a 
missionary to other men and women. 
This is the central, vital, working idea. 
No member is exempt from its demands. 
Andrew told Peter; Peter told the people 
of Pentecost ; they the world. A preacher 
was recently asked, " How is it you can 
keep your church overflowing all the 
year?" The reply was, "Because be- 
tween four and five hundred members 
preach my sermons over again to the peo- 
ple." This is a fundamental principle. 
Our membership should be taught it, and 
inspired to act upon it. 

2. Next we are to pour these words 
into the hearts of the world around us. 
We are immediately responsible for north- 
ern New Jersey. The best way to save 
the heathen abroad is to save the heathen 
at home. There must be a place for the 
words to start from. That place should 
have sufficient force to project them round 
the world. Let us make our Conference 
domain such a place. Let us plan, pray 
and work, not only for the conversion of 
Americans, but also for the salvation of 
Germans, Jews, French, Japanese, Chi- 
nese, Italians, Scandinavians, English, 
Scotch and Irish. The gathering of these 
around us presents great opportunity. 
"None are to be hid from the heat 
thereof." If we want to save the world, 
let us save that part to which we are 
sent. 

Our one ambition is to be to send the soul- 
transforming truth deep into the soul of 
every inhabitant of our Conference domin- 
ion, teaching every one who is saved by 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



123 



it to send on the sound to others. This 
is not to be made incidental; this is to be 
the master motive of our ministry. This 
is the best practical application of 
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
This is the best way to set forces in mo- 
tion that shall spring into the arena and 
go forth preaching " the Gospel to every 
creature." When our forty-four thousand 
members, with their adherents, are all 
lifted up to this plain, practical, propel- 
ling idea — when it becomes the main- 
spring that animates them ; when it per- 
vades all their motives, plans and ac- 
tions — the Methodist farmer will not 
be meditating upon how much he can 
make and hoard to ruin his children, 
but how much he can make and 
give to save the world. The Methodist 
mechanic will not be studying how to put 
his money into property from which 
death will soon eject him, but how to put 
it into means to carry immortal souls to 
everlasting habitations where ejection 
never comes. The Methodist merchant 
shall not be blue with brooding over how 
he can lay up his treasures on earth ; but 
he will be beaming and bright with the 
joy of making and giving his thousands 
and millions to enable other souls to 
come and, like himself, " lay up treasures 
in heaven." Nor will Methodist women 
be pale, haggard and worn, wondering 
how they are to keep pace with fashion, 
but roseate, cheerful and beautiful, 
through the rapture they experience in 
rising above the world and adorning them- 
selves and others with the graces of the 
Spirit. Nor will the Methodist preacher 
be exhausted, cadaverous and sick, chaf- 
ing because he is not in a rich, strong, 
fashionable church j but he will be blithe, 



healthy, loving and happy, because he is 
counted worthy to inspire saints and save 
sinners. 

These things being so, my brethren, let 
us arise, and in the might of God lift all 
the churches of which we have charge to 
the sublime practice of giving up all for 
the Christ who will then give down all to 
them. Then shall we see the most beau- 
tiful sight on this planet. We shall see 
this conference domain lifted up toward 
the sky, shining afar like the mountain of 
the Lord's house, sending forth its reno- 
vating sound into all the earth, and its re- 
newing words unto the ends of the world. 

What has been said relates chiefly to 
the modern machinery of missions. Now 
glance at their dynamics. There is great 
experimenting in these- times about how 
to capture and convert power on mechan- 
ism. This is the industrial problem of 
the age ; it is the enigma of both capital 
and labor ; it is a legitimate study because 
magnificent mechanics are useless with- 
out magnificent dynamics. We have seen 
that the governmental, educational, scien- 
tific, and historic-machinery utilizable by 
the Church is rising up and branching out 
upon a scale of grandeur excelling far the 
most gorgeous prophetic anticipations. 
The question now is, where is the power 
that can capture and move with precision 
and velocity this vast and varied world- 
compassing machinery ? Where is the 
power that can play in upon its multi- 
formity and complexity and make it lift 
the world heavenward ? There is great 
power stored in the oceans and in the 
earth ; there is incalculable power vested 
in the billions of ponderous orbs above 
us. But this is not the kind of power 
needed to drive the productions of im- 



124 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



mortal minds and turn them into forces 
to lift the world to the skies. That power 
must be moral ; it must be spiritual ; it 
must be immortal, and it must be intelli- 
gently loving. While pondering on this 
profoundest problem, lo ! I see One stand- 
ing among the wandering sons of men who 
rivets my attention. He has come forth 
triumphant over Satan, sin, and death, 
exclaiming as he begins to soar upward by 
his own might over gravitation's law 
again to his vacated throne, " All power 
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son. and of the Holy Ghost ; 
teaching them to observe all things what- 
soever I have commanded you ; and, lo, I 
am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world.'' 

I look upon that Being with marveling 
awe. I stop, read, think, study, pray, ex- 
periment, and, lo ! the grand solution 
comes. He is the appointed and anointed 
of the Father ; he is the distributing- 
source ; he is the incarnate confluent 
center to whom comes all spiritual power, 
through whom flows all moral healing. 
Focused in him are God's energies : " in 
him are hid all the treasures of wisdom 
and knowledge ; " " in him dwelleth all 
the fullness of the Godhead bodily/*' "By 
him were all things created, that are in 
heaven, and that are in earth, visible 
and invisible, whether they be thrones, or 
dominions, or principalities, or powers : 
all things were created by him, and for 
him : and he is before all things, and by 
him all things consist [cohere] : and he is 
the head of the body, the church ; . . . 
that in all things he might have the pre- 
eminence." 



Stupendous imagery ! Matchless thought ! 
Can it be possible that this creative and 
conserving power is for us ? Xot possible 
only, but certain also ; he makes us one 
with himself and his Father, Hear his 
great valedictory prayer : " That they all 
may be one : as thou, Father, art in me, 
and I in thee, that they also may be one in 
us. . . . And the glory which thou gavest 
me I have given them ; that they may be 
one, even as we are one : I in them, and 
thou in me. that they may be made per- 
fect in one." 0, equitable grace, come to 
our aid and help us bear with equanimity 
such overwhelming grandeur ! There 
must be some reason somewhere to ex- 
plain such majestic paradox as that we 
poor sinners should thus be raised to the 
throne of the universe. Why ? What — 
where can that reason be ? Keason 
enough ! The globes that fly through the 
abysmal deeps in all their golden galaxies 
cannot reciprocate their Creator's thought, 
love, and care. They are naught but 
mute, insensate spheres roaming round 
their circuits, driven, dead and dumb ; 
but immortal men are creation's chiefs, 
the beings for whom all else were made, 
they themselves made last. The Father 
of all sighed for fellowship, and in his 
love made man. made him after his own 
likeness and in his own image — man, who 
could know him, love him, enjoy him, 
commune with him, reciprocate his good- 
ness, appreciate his love, wisdom, works. 
But this man so pre-eminently endowed 
fell, but fell into the arms of an infinite 
Lover because so pre-eminently endowed. 
Law had been violated. But that Lover 
found a ransom for his favorite children, 
the dispensation of restoration set in. 
" God sent forth his Son, made of a 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



125 



woman, made under the law, to redeem us 
who were under the law, that we might 
receive the adoption of sons.'* This re- 
splendent system of redemption reinstates 
us on a vastly higher scale than that from 
which we fell. Then we were sons by 
creation, now we are sons by filiation, 
'•'begotten again unto a lively hope." 
Out of the disaster has come the dignity 
of divine paternity and fraternity. " 
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom 
and knowledge of God ! The rebirth by 
the Holy Ghost through the Redeemer 
constitutes us affiliated children, then 
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." 
The redemption, fostering, and maturing 
of these human children is the supreme 
object of Almighty thought, love, and 
action. The preparation of man for 
association with himself is the prime and 
final purpose of the Creator. This is why 
creation was brought into being : this is 
why Christ came and died ; this is why 
the Holy Ghost is given : this is why the 
Church was founded : this is why the 
Missionary Society was framed ; and this 
is why the redemption of the world is the 
one great purpose of God in human 
history and the ultimate design of the 
Almighty in all his administration. Thus 
then you have the key. The fixed fiat of 
the Almighty is man's salvation. This is 
superlatively supreme with him : all else 
bends to the accomplishment of this most 
glorious achievement. 

Under such conditions there can be no 
final failure in missionary enterprise. 
There is in Rome a picture of a great bat- 
tle waging ; the observer doubts which 
side shall win as he looks at the combat- 
tants ; but the moment he sees the arrows 
at the upper corner of the rifted vista 



defending one and destroying the other, 
he doubts no more. So in the grand mis- 
sionary fray, sin, Satan, world, flesh, 
saloon, heathenism, idolatry, barbarity, 
make a mighty host. They are strong and 
well-entrenched in the redoubts of cen- 
turies. But the troops of God have heav- 
en's artillery on their side ; the cohorts of 
Jesus have the right of way; the mission- 
aries of the cross have all power be- 
hind them : the reserve forces are infinite 
and eternal. There is only one army on 
earth that never can be defeated ; that is 
the militant host of Jesus Christ. 

The supremely interested powers of the 
Supreme Being are the dynamics of our 
missionary machinery, It must move, and 
move in the right direction, at the right 
time, and with the right velocity. All 
then is well. The Almighty himself has 
undertaken this enterprise as his one 
grand, supreme delight. He continues his 
missions though he takes home his mis- 
sionaries. 

••While on Pisgah's mount I'm standing. 
Looking toward the vernal shore. 
There I seem to see them banding. 
Just beside the golden landing. 
Waiting to receive me o'er — 
Precious ones who went before." 

Away amid that rejoicing throng I see 
eighty happy spirits ascending from this 
Conference. Some of them were specially 
interested in our missionary war. McClin- 
tock, with his wide range of knowledge 
and kind, genial soul ; Cookman, who was 
" clad in zeal like a cloak" and in purity 
immaculate ; Dashiell, with his strong per- 
sonality and magnetic eloquence ; Burr, 
with his gentle spirit and scholarly attain- 
ments ; Porter, with his paternal kindness 



126 



MISSIONARY SERMON. 



and deep devotion ; Brice, with his many- 
sided administrative fidelity. 

I cry across the space between here and 
home and ask these veterans, "What 
news on missions from headquarters now ? 
Your Conference comrades want to know 
to-day. Shall we advance, shall we stand 
still, or shall we retreat ? " Lo ! I see 
these shining brothers backed by a great 
host, flashed with ardor, rise, and, placing 
the golden bugle to their lips, blow a loud, 
long-resounding blast whose burden is, 
No retreat ! Xo standing still ! Advance 
is the keynote of all heaven. Advance till 
Jesus, who holds in his pierced palms 
the world he died to save, presents it re- 
deemed to his Father. Advance ! for all 
true philosophy, science, art, literature, 
government, history are on your side. Ad- 
vance ! for all law, order, truth, virtue and 
beaut}* are operating for you. Advance ! 
for all saints, angels and seraphic hosts 
are advocating your cause. Advance ! for 
all the wisdom, skill, riches, plan, purpose, 
and power of the Almighty Father and his 
eternal Son. with the blessed Holy Ghost, 
are working together mightily for your 
triumph. Advance ! for there is great joy 



in these realms among the saints, angels, 
and in the Infinite God over " one sinner 
that repenteth." Advance ! for every soul 
you save shall, like a shining star, begem 
your bejeweled crown forever. Advance ! 
till the redeeming sound shall have saved 
every soul, and that ransomed world sails 
into port to disembark its last passengers 
upon these golden shores, where tears 
never fall, and souls never sigh, and 
parting never comes, and death never 
enters, and pain is never known and sick- 
ness never seen, but with surroundings 
most beautiful, companions most engag- 
ing, love most ecstatic, joy most trans- 
porting, the enraptured spirit through 
circle after circle of ever-increasing glory 
climbs up nearer and nearer and finds its 
full fruition in the bosom of its Father 
and its God. 

Oh, who would not gladly live, give 
and labor to raise his fellow-beings to 
such a bliss as this ? Then, on let us go, 
and lift up our voices and send the good 
news sounding " into all the earth, and 
its words unto the ends of the world." 

Amen. 



The Liberal Christian 



"The liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he (continue) stand." — Isa. 
XXXII. S. 



HAVE been going through life with 
my ears and eyes open for thirty-five 
years. I have been studying the forces 
by which people fall and by which 
people stand. I have made a discoveiy 
which is valuable to myself and I wish to 
make it valuable to you. That discovery 
is this, that generosity is the best invest- 
ment that a man can make, and that stin- 
giness is the worst. I lift up ray eyes and 
survey this whole universe, and the surve}^ 
brings me the news that the beings who 
practice generosity, bounteousness, open- 
heartedness and open-hand edness under 
the laws of wisdom, continue to stand, and 
that the beings who practice parsimony, 
penuriousness, niggardliness and greed- 
iness, continue to fall. Whenever a tree 
begins to hold and hoard and keep all its 
substance inside its bark it soon decays. 
The same may be said of a spring or any 
other object. The trees of the forests 
maintain their numbers, strength and 
beauty by responding to the generous rays 
of the sun, and the renewing forces of the 
earth and air. Should a tree for a single 
year refuse to send out its leaves in the 
spring, everybody would know death had 
struck it. And so when a professing 
Christian refuses to bloom with the blossoms 
of generous and fruitful promise, every good 
member of the Church feels that spiritual 
death has set in upon that Christian. Peo- 
ple are always willing to pay most for what 
they love best. The whiskey lover will 
pay most for his whiskey because he loves 
it best. The unclean person pays most for 
uncleanness, because he loves it best. The 
pleasure seeker pays most for pleasure, be- 
cause he loves it best. The student pays 
most for instruction because he loves it 
best. You may sift society from top to 
bottom and you will find people are liberal 
toward what they love, and stingy toward 
what they hate. 



Xow the question rises back of the blush 
and bloom of generosity, what should we 
love most? Because what we love most 
we will support most, and what we support 
most is all we have to depend on to sup- 
port us in our deep necessities. If a per- 
son love himself most he will spend most 
on himself. If he love the theatre, the 
dance, and the world generally most, he 
will spend most on these things. People 
are always liberal toward what they really 
love, and the things for which they give 
most shows where their love lies. When 
you find a person giving much money to 
God you know it is a sign that he loves 
God. When you find people giving money 
to the cause of God, you know it is a sign 
that they love that cause. The propor- 
tional amount a man gives to support evil, 
shows how much he loves evil. The pro- 
portional amount a man gives to support 
good, shows how much he loves good. 

It is not only the amount he talks, or the 
amount he prays, or the amount he pro- 
fesses, but the amount week after week, 
month after month, and year after year, 
that he gives, in proportion to his income, 
that proves how much real love he has for 
God and His Kingdom. 

This leads us to discuss the constancy 
of proportionate giving. Some people 
promise but do not pay. This is bad, for 
to dishonesty it adds lying. Other people 
promise and pay for a time ; but get weary 
and quit; this is also vexatious and full 
of evil. Other people promise and pay : 
but pay only one-half or one-quarter of 
what they ought to pay. Other people pay 
by fits and starts, spasmodically, just as 
they happen to feel at the time, without 
regard to any steady and established prin- 
ciple or law. Suppose God should act in 
this way in His giving to us ? 

Suppose He should get weary and quit 
giving to you, and you should wake up and 



136 



THE LIBERAL CHRISTIAN. 



find that the sun had been taken out of the 
heavens, or the sea swept from the earth. 
By His suspension of the sun we should all 
freeze up ; by His suspension of the sea we 
should all dry up. Our existence depends 
upon the quantity and constancy of the 
gifts of the Great Giver. And it is gen- 
erally true that the continuance of the good 
you have been doing depends upon the 
continuity, quantity and quality of the gifts 
you have been giving. 

I sometimes sit and wonder as I look at 
our vast congregations if all these broad 
browed, able bodied men in the prime of life, 
realize what good they are doing and how 
much more good they might do. It is 
your money that enables Sam Jones and 
myself and our assistants to pour the gift 
of God out upon the world. Your money 
has loosed us from the temporal things and 
said to us, go up into the spiritual things 
and bring Us out treasurers new and old. 

But you can do a great deal more, you 
can, by giving more, put more men into 
the field. You can give me more assis- 
tants who will be able to devote all their 
time to the work. You can establish a 
great educational, inspirational forum 
here for building up Christian Citizenship 
in Boston ; you can enable us to flood this 
city with pure literature and pure preaching 
of the Son of God ; you can enable us to 
send the Gospel to the utmost bounds of 
the earth. Great is the good my friends 
you are doing with your money. But 
greater still is the good you can do. If all 
the people who attend this Temple were to 
give regularly and systematically one-tenth 
of their earnings Ave could make this city, 
this state, this country and this world, 
resound from one side to the other with 
the glad tidings and great joy. This leads 
us to consult the law of the Almighty on 
this subject. 

By turning to Leviticus XXVII. 32 ; we 
read, "The tenth shall be holy unto the 
Lord." 

This law was not only for the Israel of God 
in old times but for the Israel of God in all 
times. It is a law that never can be can- 



celled, Christ himself confirmed it in 
Matt. XXIII. 23, where referring to the 
tenth in tithes, he says, " these ought ye to 
have done." When his people neglected 
or refused to pay this tenth, God exclaims, 
in Malachi 8-12. "Will a man rob God? 
Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say 
wherein have we robbed thee ? In tithes 
and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse : 
for ye have robbed me, even this whole 
nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the 
store-house and prove me now herewith 
saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open 
you the windows of heaven and pour you 
out a blessing that there shall not be room 
enough to receive it and I will rebuke the 
devourer for your sakes and he shall not 
destroy the fruits of your ground; neither 
shall your vine cast her fruit before the 
time in the field saith the Lord of Hosts, 
and all nations shall call you happy for ye 
shall be a delightsome land saith the Lord 
of Hosts." 

The whole story of the nation of Israel 
proves that when the people showed their 
loyalty to God by giving a tenth to His cause 
they were blessed, when they showed their 
disloyalty by not giving that tenth, they 
were cursed. These children of Abraham 
were chosen as an example to show how 
God treats all His other children. The law 
He laid down to them He lays down to us. 

A tenth therefore is the least any man 
ought to think of returning to God. If 
with inferior privileges God's ancient fam- 
ily gave a tenth, surely with our superior 
advantages we should never think of giv- 
ing less. If our earnings are Hve dollars a 
week we should give fifty cents a week ; 
if ten dollars a week we should give a 
dollar a week ; if fifteen dollars a week we 
should give one dollar and a half; if 
twenty dollars a week we should give 
two dollars to the Lord ; if your income 
is one hundred dollars a week you should 
give ten dollars a week; if a thousand a 
week you should give one hundred dollars 
a week to God. 

But you say by what way of conveyance 
are we to give this money to God. By the 



THE LIBERAL CHRISTIAN. 



137 



way God has himself appointed. Pie ap- 
pointed the Levites in His ancient church 
to receive it and use it for the support of 
His worship in the Temple, He has ap- 
pointed the officers of His church now to 
receive it and use it to maintain His wor- 
ship and spread His Gospel. The 
stewards and trustees of this Temple are 
just as rightfully appointed now and here 
to receive your tenth as were the Levites 
of old in the old Temple. They are jnst 
as much obligated to see that it is properly 
applied to the promotion of His worship 
and the proclamation of His Gospel as if 
God had come down and spoken with a 
voice from the roof of this house. 

You can see the importance and serious- 
ness of the situation we occupy my friends; 
whether we are private members or officers 
in this holy place. 

God has so kindly arranged matters that 
you who are poor and can only give your 
ten cents out of the dollar you earn a 
week, or your fifty cents out of the five, or 
your dollar out of your ten, or your two 
dollars out of your twenty. I say He has 
so adjusted matters that you who give thus 
systematically out of your poverty, shall 
be just as pleasing and acceptable in His 
sight as the rich man who gives his hun- 
dreds of thousands out of his abundance. 

If you give in proportion to the amount 
you get, that is acceptable in the sight of 
God, and pleasing in the view of men, 
even though it be small as the widow's 
mite. But be careful and let no one say, 
" I earn but little and therefore can give 
nothing." Give your proper percentage 
and be faithful in other respects, and God 
will see to it that you earn more. The- 
only way to be happy and prosperous is to 
be dutiful, self-sacrificing and obedient. If 
you do not honor God out of the little, do 
you suppose He is going to trust you with 
the much. If you have a child and you 
give that child a five dollar bill to spend 
on himself, all but fifty cents, and the boy 
goes off and spends the whole amount on 
himself, and thus shows his disregard of 
your will, and disrespect for your word, 



are you going to trust that boy with a ten 
dollar bill next time? You know you 
would not; you would not trust him with 
the five- But if when you give your child 
a five dollar bill to spend, you tell him, just 
to teach him, to return fifty cents to you, 
and the child goes off and spends properly, 
four dollars and fifty cents, and brings 
back fifty cents to you, you say, you are a 
dear good child. I am glad you have 
obeyed me and showed that you respect 
my will, and you feel grateful and encour- 
aged to trust your boy. And after a while, 
when you see that by months and years of 
obedience, he shows that he is entirely 
trustworthy, you give to him and trust him 
with still greater amounts, till finally he 
grows into your confidence so much that 
you can trust him with all you have. 

The reason so many people are poor and 
wretched in this world, and will be poor 
and miserable forever, is because they do 
not give to God out of their poverty. 
When I was preaching in New York I was 
supported in my work largely by a man 
who once was an apple boy on the streets. 
He had made five dollars at the business. 
He happened into old Green Street Meth- 
odist Church, where they were taking up 
a Missionary collection. As the preacher 
portrayed the needs of the Missionary 
Society, the boy was stirred and made up 
his mind he would give one of his five dol- 
lars. After a while, as the preacher un- 
folded his theme, the boy became still more 
sympathetic, and said to himself, "I guess 
that is worth two of my dollars, " and by 
the time the preacher got through the boy 
had said to himself, "such a good cause as 
that is worthy of all I have." And so 
when the collectors came round he put the 
five dollars in the basket. Some of the 
Officials noticed the little boy and his big 
contribution, and went back to him with it 
and said : " didn't you make a mistake in 
putting all that money in?" "No," said 
he, "my name is 'Bill Cornell,' the apple 
boy. I earned it myself and I want you 
to have the whole of it." The collector 
went away ashamed of himself, for although 



138 



THE LIBERAL CHRIS TIAN. 



he was worth more than a hundred such 
apple boys, he had not given as much as 
little ••Bill." But the news that a poor 
little apple boy had given live dollars, 
spread like tire among the officials of that 
church, and there were men there who 
noted the matter. Xot long after that, one 
of them needed a trustworthy hoy in his 
iron foundry, and little ••Bill" was asked 
to come. He went, and after he was in 
receipt of live dollars a week he gave fifty 
cents a week to the church. It was not 
long before he earned seven dollars a week 
and increased his weekly contributions to 
seventy cents. He kept faithfully attend- 
ing to his employers interests, and he soon 
was earning ten dollars a week, and then 
he gave a dollar a week. He gradually 
grew in the respect and confidence of both 
God and man. and whenever there was a 
raise in his salary there was a correspond- 
ing raise in his church contribution. And 
to make a long and most interesting story 
short, - little Bill" grew to be -big Bill." 
He had learned how to conduct a big es- 
tablishment. He founded an iron foundry 
of his own. He helped to invent the plan 
of building houses and bridges with iron 
frames. He furnished the iron for great 
establishments in Xew York, such as the 
McCreery and A. T. Stewart buildings. 
But all this time he kept up his habit of 
giving to God's Church one-tenth of his 
income. He became one of the leading- 
manufacturers of the world, and one of the 
best known, best beloved citizens in Xew 
York City. And the great iron firm known 
by his name, and many Methodist Churches 
stand to testify to the imperishable fact, 
that W. AY. Cornell proved that -The 
liberal deviseth liberal things and by liberal 
things shall he stand." 



Mr. Cornell I knew well ; he was a man 
of strong body, clear mind and good heart. 
After a long life full of wisdom, riches and 
honor, he went up to be with the blessed, 
but he leaves behind him a legacy of 
precious living and giving that shall never 
leave the earth till it has been saved by 
retrieving power, as well as redeeming 
price. Mr. Cornell is only one of many 
such men that we might mention. Cobb of 
Morristown. X. J., Ferry of Orange. X. 
J.. Taylor of Jersey City. Rich and Sleeper 
of Boston. Ah! brothers and sisters, it is 
well to hold such men in memory, dear. It 
is well to follow their high and beau- 
tiful example. Though dead they still 
speak, though departed they still stand, 
aye. stand as princes in this universe, be- 
cause they proved that God could trust 
them. 

But you say, why cannot 1 fix my own 
amount? Because God has fixed it for you. 
You have no right to undo what God has 
done. Is it not vastly better fcr you to 
have ninety per cent of your earnings and 
God's confidence and care, than to have 
one hundred per cent and have His dis- 
trust and disapproval ? We are not pro- 
prietors of what we earn or own : we are 
stewards only. It is required of a steward 
that he be found faithful. When a boy. 
I lived near the estate of Squire Agnew. 
He had one of the handsomest and largest 
estates in the county. He spent the most 
of his time in Europje. He had a steward 
to manage his property. This steward 
had charge of the productive part of the 
estate, horses, sheep, cows, forests and 
lands. The domain was very large, 
beautiful and productive. But I remem- 
ber how the news came round that 
the steward was to be removed. The rea- 



THE LIBERAL CHRISTIAN. 



139 



son was, that he did not make returns ac- 
cording to contract. And that, my friends, 
is the reason many a steward of God is 
suspended, and some one else is lifted up 
and put in his place. Returns according 
to contract. The contract calls for a tenth 
of your income, whatever that may be. If 
you break the contract how can you com- 
plain if God suspends you from promotion 
or even possession ? You will not have 
Him to blame, nor your neighbor to blame. 
Xone will be to blame but yourself. Oh 
dear ones, the world is full of suspended 
men and women ; Their places are being 
taken by others, just because God cannot 
trust them ; because they prove faithless 
as stewards in the little He gives ; He can- 
not and will not trust them with the 
much. 

Go to the thousands of broken down 
men and women. Find me one of them 
who has become broken down by keeping 
faith with God. Find me one of them who 
is without food or clothing or shelter or 
friends, because he gave systematically 
every week, one-tenth of his earnings to 
God's cause. I meet broken down people 
every day, of both sexes. I am interested 
in them. I examine many of them criti- 
cally and carefully, and I never yet have 
found one among the thousands that has 
come into that sad condition by giving a 
tenth of his earnings to God. 

Go up to the Bureau of Associated 
Charities. Go out among the jailed men 
and women and find me one who has been 
brought low by being faithful in giving a 
tenth of his earnings to God, and I will 
analyze him as a curiosity, and embalm him 
as the most singular specimen of the ages. 
No, brothers, this is not the way people go 
down. They go down because they break 



away from fidelity in their stewardship to 
God. Then God suspends His care and 
they become wrecks here and hereafter. 
Is it not a fact that the majority of people 
spend more to hurt themselves than they 
do to help themselves ? If you will notice 
the customs of the world you will see that 
many people spend much more to ruin 
themselves and others, than so-called 
Christian people spend to save themselves 
and others. In Boston alone there are 
at least ten millions of dollars spent every 
year by the people, in destroying them- 
selves. 

If I were to run up to a motorman on 
one of the street cars and offer him a 
thousand dollars to lay my head on the 
track, and then run over me, you would 
call me a fool. But there are thousands of 
people in Boston who are going up to the 
saloon counter, and into the bad houses, 
and into the theatres, saying, " here's my 
money, give me your stuff." And they 
know, or ought to know, that that stuff 
has killed more victims than all the street 
cars in creation, a thousand times over, and 
that this very same stuff will in the end 
destroy them too. What's the use of pay- 
ing your money to get slain? If you want 
to die and be damned, it would be more 
sensible of you, and less harmful, to give 
some poor fellow your money who will 
properly use it, and go and jump into the 
bay ! ! ! Ah, my hearers, make up your 
mind this hour, that you have spent your 
last cent on your own destruction, and turn 
round and let me show you how you can 
invest your earnings for your re-construc- 
tion. 

When I was a boy I used to go into my 
father's barn and see here heaps of 
various kinds of potatoes, and there bins 



140 



THE LIBERAL CHRISTIAN. 



of oats, and beans, and barley, and wheat. 
And I remember asking : " Father, what are 
these for ? " He said : " These are for seed, 
my son." " And you are not going to sell 
these, papa ? " " No !" " And you are not 
going to consume them ? " No ! " " And 
you are going to put them in the ground 
again ? " " Yes." " And why are you 
going to do that, papa ? " " Because 1 
want the ground to bear more," was the 
reply. And so when the seed time came 
I used to see him and the servants take 
those seeds and plant them, and sow them 
in the fields, till all the seeds were gone 
and all the fields were sown. In my child- 
ishness at first I thought, what a waste 
that is ! But when the summer came and 
all the fields were ablossom and abloom, 
and when the harvest came and I saw the 
servants gather in the vast bins of potatoes 
and the huge stacks of wheat and corn, and 
found out that father had reaped a hundred 
fold more than he sowed, I used to say to 
myself : " What a wise man dear papa is." 
I suppose on the average he sowed a tenth 
of what he had reaped and used the other 
nine-tenths. And now he sowed another 
tenth and reaped another hundred fold, 
and so on year after year he kept sowing his 
tenth and reaping his ten-tenths, and so 
supported his family and all who were 
depending upon him. 

Could anything be more natural and 
beautiful ? And that is just what your 
Heavenly Father wants you to do. He 
gives you earning ability. He says sow 
a tenth of what you earn and I shall see to 
it that in the fruitage of your soul and in 
the circumstances of your life you shall 
reap an hundred fold in this life, and in 
the world to come, life everlasting. But 
my friends there are so many things to 



draw us away from this noble, safe, and 
glorious duty that we are liable to forget 
and let the duty lapse. There are many 
who give by impulse of the moment, or by 
haphazard, and then guess that they have 
done their duty, and given on the whole, 
ten per cent. It is never safe to do by 
guess any vital and important duty. The 
good business man does not guess his ac- 
counts are right. He knows they are right. 
And if a business man is careful to keep 
his accounts correctly between himself and 
his customers, surely the Christian should be 
no less careful to know that he keeps his 
accounts correctly between himself and 
God. 

To enable you to do so we have a sys- 
tematic plan of giving in this Temple. It 
is a plan adopted by almost all the churches, 
most of you know how it works. 
At the beginning of the year we say to you 
how much is needed to conduct the ser- 
vices of the Temple for another year. We 
furnish you with cards on which you 
mark the amount you will give by the 
week for the year. We supply you with 
fifty-two envelopes, one for each week and 
we say, place the amount you subscribe 
weekly in these envelopes and put them in 
the passing boxes each Sabbath. In this 
way we find out who are supporting the 
Temple and how much they are giving for 
its support. This enables your officers to 
decide how much they can spend on the 
choir ; how much on the ministers ; how 
much on the Deaconess; how much on 
sextons, light, heat, repairs, etc. This we 
have found to be a good plan and a scrip- 
tural plan for it is written in I Cor. XVII. 
2 : "Upon the first day of the week let each 
one of you lay by him in store as God 
has prospered him" (here you have the 



THE LIBERAL CHRISTIAN. 



141 



time, Sunday) and the proportional amount 
specified for the regular services of the 
Temple. This is what God's ancient 
people gave and prospered, when they 
gave less they fell into hard times, trials 
and tribulations without number. 

Well, but you say: "If I give a tenth to 
God I will have nothing to give to man." 
Oh yes, you have nine- tenths still left and 
out of that if you want to you can help 
your neighbor, but your first duty is to give 
your tenth to God's Temple and of course 
you know that all its services are in be- 
half of the welfare of man therefore what 
you give to the Temple you give to the 
good of men. Well, but you say: "I will 
have nothing left to give to the Missionary 
Society, worn-out preachers, and Church 
Extension Society." Oh yes you still have 
your nine- tenths to draw on for these out- 
side purposes and you can give much or 
little as you see fit, but your first duty 
remains done when you have given a tenth 
to support God's Worship and Gospel in 
His Holy Temple. As a rule, people who 
give a tenth to support the Gospel at home 
are the very ones who always have most 
to give to promote the Gospel abroad. 
Another person inquires: "May unconverted 
persons be included in giving a tenth?" 
Most certainly, there is one law for all 
human beings, God blessed the Gentiles 
who treated Israel kindly ; giving to God's 
cause, brings good to every giver. There 
is possibly no church in the world that has 
a larger list of what may be called 
outside givers than this, and I know that 
many of them have been greatly blessed 
by it. 

Another asks : "But are we not to be 
governed by love instead of by giving ?" 
Truly, but did ever you see a lover who did 



not want to give to the beloved. As a rule 
the greater the love of the lover, the greater 
the gifts he gives and so it is that many, 
lovers of God, give far more than a tenth. I 
have known some to give a fifth and others 
to give a half ; and I did know one soul who 
loved so much that she gave nine- tenths 
to the Lord and kept only one-tenth to 
herself, and she was the happiest woman 
I ever knew. A tenth is the least, loyal 
souls give, but many give much more, aye 
give all that they have for the sake of that 
Master who gave even Himself for them. 
Among these I am most happy to place 
myself. If I did not feel that I daily give 
all I have and all I am to Him who loved 
me so much as to give all He had and was, 
for me I would of all men be most miser- 
able. But the practice of giving up all to 
Him, and getting all from Him, makes me 
one of the happiest of men. 

By consulting the following passages in 
your Bible you will find, that giving as we 
have pointed out : 

I. Manifests grace, Cor. viii, 7-9. 

II. Lifts nearer to God, ii Chron. xvii,5-6. 

III. Makes friends in heaven, Luke xvii, 9. 

IV. Increases our heavenly deposits, i Tim., 
vi, 18-19. 

V. Secures grandest prosperity, ii Cor., ix, 

6-11. 

VI. Is pleasant in the sight of God, Acts 
x, 4, Gen. xxviii, 22. 

VII. Fertilizes the soul, Prov. xi, 25. 

By studying the following scripture 
passages you will discover that not giving 
as we have said you ought to give is most 
dangerous business. 

Proverbs xxiii, 4-5 and xxvii, 24, show 
riches are uncertain and of short duration 
when hoarded. 



142 



THE LIB Eli AL CHRISTIAN. 



Eccles. v, 13, proves they are kept by 
the owner to his own injury. 

Matt, xiii, 22, proves they are deceptive. 

Ezek. xviii, 4-5, proves that they puff up 
with pride. 

James v, 1-3, proves they become 
putrescent and destroy the possessor. 

Mark x, 23-24, proves that they stand in 
the way of becoming a follower of Christ. 

I. Tim. vi, IT, shows that they foster 
false faith and trust. 

Luke xii, 20-21, shows that Christ looks 
upon the man dominated by them as a 
fool. 

I. Tim. v, 9, demonstrates that they 
who set the their heart on them fall into 
"destruction and perdition." 

Covetousness is a crime which is classed 
with adultery and theft. 

I. Cor., vi, 9-10. 

Charity is a grace which is juaced before 
even faith or hope, for greater than these 
is charity. Generosity is not only the 
gauge of piety but the off- spring of love. 

God is most generous because most lov- 
ing. Some are willing to give prayers and 
tears but refuse money. A stingy man was 
present when a cause of benevolence was 
being presented, he wept freely during the 
pathetic parts of the discourse. The 
collector who passed the collection box 
noticed he did not offer to put any money 
into it. That collector stopped, looked at 
him and said: "Stop your crying, old 
fellow, and if you love this enterprize, down 
with the dust, this enterprize does not run 
\\ itli water power." 

A man saved another from drowning at 
great risk to his own life. The rescued 
man offered his heroic rescuer ten cents as 



an expression of his gratitude. The people 
found fault with his stinginess, when a 
humorous bystander said : " Let the man 
alone, he knows the value of his own life 
best." A rich man died. Another man 
asked " how much did he leave ? " "Left 
it all," was the reply ! 

How much better it is to give it than to 
leave it. If I had ten millions of dollars I 
would give it all and leave none. By that 
means I would take it with me. The only 
way you can take your money to Heaven 
is to give it to God's cause. Give it to 
support the preaching of the Gospel. Give 
it to promote the beauty and power of the 
Temple of God. Give it to spread the 
Gospel throughout the world. The best 
part of your own nature, says give. The 
most exalted and honored tongues of an- 
tiquity cry give. The word of God with 
one strong, long resounding voice cries, 
give. The life of Christ from the crests of 
Galilee and the Heights of Olivet and the 
Crown of Calvary cries, give. The Voice 
of the Holy Spirit from the heart of nature 
and the Heart of Heaven cries give. The 
Voice of the Father who gave the unspeak- 
able gift, and still gives unutterable gifts, 
cries through the light of every star, and 
the fire of every sunbeam, and the glisten- 
ing of every dew-drop, Give ! Give ! ! 
Give ! ! ! " Give and it shall be given you." 
Give a tenth to my Temple, give it system- 
atically. Give it because you love your 
fellow man and Father in Heaven. Give 
it from now until He gives you glory in 
the skies. Then shall you know better 
the powerful truth of the text : 

" The liberal deviseth liberal things, and 
by liberal things shall He continue to 
stand." 



Paul Beginning His Course* 

"Even so run that ye may attain." — I. Cor. ix : 24. 



ABOUT five years after the birth of 
our Saviour, there was born, in the 
citv^ of Tarsus, in Cilicia, a child 
who has done more to renovate mankind 
than any other, with the sublime exception 
of the Son of God Himself. 

He was brought up in that Gentile city, 
as were other Jewish boys. He began to 
learn the Shema, or Israelitish prayers, by 
his mother's knee at the age of four, and 
the Hallel, or Hebrew hymns, at the age 
of five. At ten he was instructed in the 
Mishna, or code of Jewish laws. At fif- 
teen he would begin the study of the Hag- 
gadah, or sacred Jewish books, teaching 
for all time the importance of proper 
parental training of the children com- 
mitted to our trust. 

His parents, who were strictest Jews 
(and it is better to be a conscientious Jew 
than a licentious Gentile), with the ambi- 
tious blood of Benjamin surging in their 
veins, were also free and enlightened Ro- 
man citizens, and were not slow to "mark 
the risings of imperial intellect " in this 
their favorite son. The bright banks of 
the swift Cydnus, the trade of a Cilician 
hair-cloth weaver, and the crude compan- 
ships of rustic Tarsus, were no longer 
deemed fitting theatres of action for their 
boy's ascending genius. Accordingly, they 
gave his studies such shape as would pre- 
pare him for sitting at the feet of that most 
noted Eabbin of all times, the profound 
and competent Gamaliel. And so, when 
the rudiments were well mastered by their 



son, they despatched him to the great an- 
cestral Capital, to enter upon the more ex- 
tensive studies of the Hagadoth, or holy 
literature. Here the intense application 
and lofty endowments of the youth gave 
him important prominence. He rapidly 
rose through his classes. He soon stood 
at the head of the school, and, probably 
marrying a Jerusalem virgin, was nomi- 
nated and elected member of the august 
Sanhedrim And, now skilled as a diplo- 
mat, thorough as a Hebraist, self-exact- 
ing as a ceremonialist, and evidently born 
to be a leader, it was natural that when 
any exigency arose in the nation he should 
be pushed to the front. That exigency 
was not long in coming. The cries of the 
followers of the Nazarene were convulsing 
society and swiftly rendering effete much 
that was venerable and all that was ve- 
neered in Judaism. Where is the man 
who will take the field as arch inquis- 
itor ? Who will quell this factious fanati- 
cism ? rang through the Jewish senate, 
and, as if by common consent, the minds of 
all turned upon this young tell-me-any- 
thing-more-to-do-and-I-will-do-it pharisee. 
He is now rising thirty years of age, the 
best known, most highly gifted and trusted 
young man in Jerusalem. He accepts the 
crimson commission as a duty. His wild 
heart beat, and his great brain throbbed to 
do something to vindicate the honor of 
Mosaism against the assumptions of the 
crucified Mesith. He summoned his in- 
quisitorial helpers. He mounted his cav- 



148 



PAUL BEGINNING HIS COURSE. 



airy, and at their head, flaming with zeal, 
" breathing ' out threatenings and slaugh- 
ter," he scoured every village, town and 
city in the Jewish dominion, capturing 
Christians of both sexes, and committing 
them either to death or to prison if they 
did not recant. 

Finally, when all Palestine had been in- 
spected and many had poured out then- 
lives in floods of gore, news arrived that 
Christians had fled to Syria for protection 
in Damascus. 

Burning with fury and intoxicated with 
praise, he was not the man to be dissuaded 
by distances. Heading his cavalcade 
northward, he sped up the valley of the 
Jordan, through Galilee,, past Hermon and 
the snow-covered peaks of Lebanon. But 
this seven days' journey on horseback, 
over lonely roads, affords time for musing. 
The mind of the great persecutor begins 
to reflect, his reason to flow, his passion 
to subside. He recalls that accusing 
sight, the dying rapture of Stephen. " 
He thinks of the old Scriptures, and com- 
pares them with the recent scenes of Cal- 
vary. He may have (like the eunuch of 
Ethiopia) unrolled the vellum parchment 
of Isaiah and read with a new light gleam- 
ing from tbe startling and accusing lines, 
"Who hath believed our report, and to 
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? 
For He shall grow up before him as a ten- 
der plant, and as root out of a dry ground. 
He hath no form nor comeliness, and when 
we shall see him there is no (physical) 
beauty that we should desire him. He is 
despised and rejected of men, a man of 
sorrow and acquainted with grief, and 
we hid, as it were, our faces from him. 
He was despised, and we esteemed him 



not. Surely, he hath borne our griefs 
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did es- 
teem him, stricken, smitten of God, and 
afflicted. But he was wounded for our 
transgressions, he was bruised for our 
iniquities, the chastisement of our peace 
was laid on him, and with his stripes we 
are healed. All we, like sheep, have 
gone astray ; we have turned, every one, 
to his own way, and the Lord hath laid 
on him the iniquities of us all." He is 
on the bleak, barren plain which overlooks 
Damascus. The golden Abana and wind- 
ing Pharpar shimmer in the sun-lit dis- 
tance. Amid gardens of roses and groves 
of fruit, " flooded with the gold of breath- 
less morn, the Eye of the East, with its 
terraced roofs and glittering cupolas, 
rises before him like a handful of pearls 
in a goblet of emerald." But he sees 
them not. A terrible recoil has fell upon 
his conscience. The ghost of the murdered 
Christ rises up before his gaze, and 
through the glare of that Syrian noon 
there broke "an intolerable blaze of bound- 
less light." The atmosphere had caught 
fire and wrapped him in sheets of blind- 
ing flame. In the flame a form, and from 
the form a voice, and in the voice a call, 
" Saul, Saul, why, why persecuteth thou 
Me ? " Saul, now struggling in the spasms 
of conviction, replied, "Who art Thou, 
Lord ? " and that Lord said, " I am Jesus, 
whom thou persecutest." Noonday was 
now kindled in the midnight of his soul, 
and he replied, trembling and astonished, 
" Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " 
"Arise and go into the city, and it shall 
be told thee," was the reply. Staggering 
under the weight of this dazzling light, 
the letters of his commission dropped 



PAUL BEGINNING HIS COURSE. 



149 



from his palsied hands. He obeyed his 
new and imperial Master, and was led into 
Damascus, to be instructed by that Ana- 
nias whom he had started out to slay, and 
who now was commissioned by the Lord 
to guide him to the baptism of the Holy 
({host in answer to his plea. Such was 
the conversion of Saul, the Sanhedrinist, 
and such was the commencement of that 
new career which was, on its earthly side, 
an incessant martyrdom, but. on its 
heavenly side, an eternal glory. 

Hast thou, my hearer, been arrested by 
this superior light ? Has the Son of God 
spoken to thee on the highway of life as 
He did to Saul on the highroad to Damas- 
cus ? If not, submit to examine that life 
of thine which to this hour has been 
crucifying the Son of God afresh, and 
putting him to an open shame, and as 
thou seest in answer to thy earnest plea 
the superior light and the resplendent 
form, and nearest the arresting voice, 
Why ? " Why persecutest thou Me ? " 
And as in the deep of thine illumined soul 
thou criest "Who art Thou, Lord ? " thou 
wilt learn, He is Jesus whom thou per- 
secutest, and as thou dost respond in 
sweet submission " Lord what wilt thou 
have me to do ? " the silent answer will 
come, arise, go to the people of the Lord 
and they will tell thee what thou must do. 

Thus was Saul the slaughterer turned 
into Paul the penitent seeking to know 
the whole will of his Father and his God. 
And where can he go to study that will ? 
Where but to that land of granitic crags 
where had been given the fiery law ? 
That land where the bush did burn but 
not consume, where man was distant but 
God was near ? Where but to those re- 



treats in which glowed the pillar of guid 
ing cloud and flame, and through which 
Jehovah spake to Moses and to Joshua as 
friend with friend ? Accordingly " refrain- 
ing his soul to keep it low," lie struck into 
the desert of Arabia where he might 
study in Elijah's cave and commune with 
God on the hallowed grounds where 
his ^great ancestors first felt their bosoms 
thrill with the transfiguring will of Heaven. 
And here he held his heart beneath the 
divine throne till the sacred spirit " O'er 
informed its tenement of clay, " and then 
three years hence suddenly reappeared in 
Damascus as if he had flew straight from 
the peaks of Sinai on pinions dripping 
with convicting fires. 

He entered the Jewish Synagogue there 
to preach the faith he had once destroyed, 
and with such power did he drive it home, 
in the first flush of his new found faith 
that the Jews resorted to their " customary 
Syllogism of Violence,'" and resolved to 
murder him ere he left the place ; but by 
some friendly hands at noon of night he 
was let down the abutment of the city 
wall in a basket, and passing the patrol 
soon found himself on that same highway 
where he had been changed from a messen- 
ger of hate into an Ambassador of Love. 
The sun rose on him passing swiftly toward 
Palestine with many affecting memories 
filling his mind. He soon reached those 
sacred haunts made classic by the sinless 
feet of Him whom he now decided to 
serve. He does not seek his former grand 
associations. He gives up all which once 
to him was gain, and so sets young con- 
verts a beautiful example of decision. He 
enters the Holy City poor, pale with pro- 
tracted thought, purpose and prayer. He 



150 



PAUL BEGINNING HIS COURSE. 



however seeks out Peter the flaming fisher- 
man, who had spread such fires abroad 
on the day of Pentecost. He tried to join 
himself to him and the other disciples, 
but was everywhere met with cold and 
distrustful looks. There was however 
one brave heart at Jerusalem then who 
shunned not the man who came to share 
their Christian perils, poverty and .per- 
secutions. That was the eloquent Barna- 
bas, the Cypriote, who, when he heard his 
story knew he was no sheer spy, and 
commended him to the companionship of 
Peter. Here his preaching again cut short 
his stay. A deep conspiracy was made 
to murder the " Eenegade Eabbi " and the 
divine command came " Make instant 
haste and depart in speed from J erusalem 
for they will not receive thy testimony 
concerning Me. Go, for I will send thee 
far hence unto the Gentiles." And so 
Saul still in unsettled quandary about 
the future sped to his natal city, and 
there while the fields ripened his arms 
grew strong to thrust the sickle in. The 
lion-hearted Barnabas had gone to the 
Syrian Capital to form the second metro- 
polis of Christianity. Being full of the 
Holy Ghost he was able to take in the 
Antiochian situation, and also to discern 
the man who could storm the bastions of 
the foe. Here in Antioch was a many 
sided life. Supple and salacious Greeks. 
Sensuous and disdainful Bomans. Inveter- 
ate and bigoted Jews, with quacks, pand- 
ers, musicians, satirists and dancing 
girls thrown in between. Where is the 
man who will convert this third metro- 
polis of the Ancient world with its 
500,000 souls ? Where is the man who 
will capture Mount Sulpius for the Lord ? 



Where is the dauntless and competent 
preacher who will go forth into the centre 
of this city and make the street of 
Singon ring with the best timed tidings 
of salvation ? Where is the man who can 
face these parti-colored crowds of edu- 
cated Greeks, cultured Komans and con- 
tracted Jews and speak the great and 
mighty words that will set them free ? 
Such a many sided man Barnabas saw was 
not in the grave and mysterious James. 
Such a manhood was not in the eloquent 
and distinguished John. 

Such educated competence was not even 
in the Thunderer of the Pentecost, the 
impetuous Peter. But such a man was 
in silence waiting in the city of Tar- 
sus weaving the black goats' hair into 
Cilician tent cloth. " Then departed 
Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul." 
Having found him he returned to 
Antioch as with a newty discovered trea- 
sure. Saul immediately exceeded the 
highest anticipation. His soul seemed 
filled with a power which consumed every 
difficulty. The splendid worldliness and 
glittering fascination of Antioch were 
soon eclipsed b}' that superior lustre 
which shone out through his speech and 
superstition, sensuality, stoicism and the 
" gingling sistra of beardless Gali " fell 
before the <i imposing splendors of the 
Heavenly truths he exhibited to their 
view." And so much did the church 
grow in numbers, wealth and enter- 
prise, that she sent aid to the saints 
at Jerusalem by the hands of Barnabas 
and Saul, and finally as they became able 
to take care of themselves, and to con- 
ceive the expansive genius of Christianity, 
they prepared to send Barnabas and Saul 



PAUL BEGINNING HIS COURSE. 



151 



forth as Missionaries to the Gentiles. 
And now the great Christian Odyssey set 
sail. The Apostolic barque first spread 
her canvas on the classic Orontes, and 
sailing down past Selucia, on over the 
blue waves of the Mediterranean came to 
Salamis in Cyprus. The missionaries 
passed through the island and finally came 
to Paphos, its Capital, and seat of the 
Roman pro-consul. Here Saul whose 
force of character was continually dis- 
covering itself by his superior personal 
ascendancy, over even Barnabas himself 
and John Mark who had gone along- 
struck with blindness the renowned 
Cyprian wizard Elymas, for meddling 
with what was none of his business 
and preached the gospel to Sergius 
Paulus, the Roman governor and the 
Paphians, and then was off again by 
sea toward the more extensive and 
dangerous fields of Asia. Here in Pap- 
hos we read of Saul for the last 
time. Henceforth he is to be known by 
the less wanton name of Paul, Paul 
suffers what Saul inflicted, Paul built up 
what Saul destroyed. Like Joseph among 
the Egyptians, and Daniel among the 
Babylonians who were known respec- 
tively as Zaphnath Paaneah and Belte- 
shazzar, so Saul now out among the Gen- 
tiles on his mighty mission is trans- 
muted into Paul indicative of his perfect 
change of person and practice. With 
work at Paphos, done and name 
changed Paul who was now by his 
personal ascendency leader of the first 
Gentile missionary trio, embarked once 
more and sailed over the Mediter- 
ranean through the deep Bight of 
Attaleia up the charming Cestrus and 



anchored under the cliffs of the bright 
Greek city of Perga. Here John Mark who 
looked out upon the dangers now in the 
wild regions ahead had ill-concealed mis- 
givings about the terrors to be faced and 
suddenly made arrangements to go home 
to Jerusalem and see his mother, but 
Paul and Barnabas baptized with blood 
and fire pressed forward to Antioch of 
Pisidia. Here in the Jewish Synagogue 
Paul preached his great masterpiece on 
the Resurrection, and as was usual with 
him convulsed his audience into two 
halves, the one thrilled with the electric 
sympathy of love, the other infuriated 
with storms of indignation. But he has 
no time to bandy epithets, he is off sixty 
miles through the wild waste to Iconium, 
and here he unfolded the standard to 
believing Greeks and unbelieving Jews. 
Next on to Lystra where he restores a 
born cripple, and preached with such 
power that the Lystrennians thought in 
the light of such epiphany, he must be the 
young and eloquent Hermes, who had 
been sent to them from Heaven. 

But when he would not accept their 
sacrifices, with revulsion of feeling, they 
stoned him almost to death. Battered, 
bruised, bleeding, with God's consola- 
tions increasing in his soul, " with the 
gentleness of a sea, which caresses the 
shore it covers," he rose from his pool 
of blood and went down to Derbe, where 
he gained for his Master the gainly Gaius, 
as he had the tender Timothy at Lystra, 
and then, wheeling round, ran back over 
the very ground where he had met such 
violence, quelling Jewish virulence and 
comfirming the little churches newly 
planted. Having plowed the field and 



152 



Paul beginning his course. 



sown the seed, he, in the face of all dan- 
ger, returned to harrow it. A year out, 
now he passed down to the port of At- 
taleia. and sailed to the Syrian Capi- 
tal. Here ended the first flight of that 
great missionary u eagle, who was to soar 
with yet bolder wing, in wider circles, 
amid more raging storms." But that 
eagle had scarcely returned to this as}'- 
lum. where, after such toils, he might 
well be expected to rest his strained and 
shattered nerves, than a new danger to this 
G-entile metropolis rose up clamorously 
before him. 

Daring Judaizers. during his absence, 
had ingratiated themselves, stealthily, 
into the heart of that splendid Church, 
which he had mainly built, and were 
teaching that it was necessary to be cir- 
cumcised. He did not endure them a 
moment. He rushed upon them like a 
lion robbed of his young, and, in the maj- 
esty of his burning soul, flung not only 
the gauntlet down in Antioch, but chal- 
lenged them to go with him up even to 
Jerusalem itself before a council of the 
famous twelve, where he would see that 
the matter was properly decided. To Je- 
rusalem they go. Peter, the hero of the 
Pentecost is there. James, the white- 
robed " brother of the Lord,"' with his 
prayer-calloused knees and dignified bear- 
ing of mystery is there, and all the viru- 
lent assailants of a pure spiritual faith, 
with the venerable Jewish theocracies be- 
hind them, are there ; but that little Ben- 
jaminite wrenches from the august assem- 
blage the much needed confession that cir- 
cumcision must be made no essential con- 
dition on which salvation shall be given 
to the Gentiles. And with one fell swoop 



of his solid arm he shattered forever the 
contracting system which would enswathe 
young Christianity in the " worn-out robes 
of effete Judaism." and proclaimed by cir- 
cular letter, which his broad-souled elo- 
quence won from this metropolis of the 
faith, that the ••petty accuracies of pos- 
ture " ? and the ••hollow rites of ceremony " 
should no longer stand in the way of a 
sorrowful and seeking soul. 

What we have seen so far of this singu- 
lar man teaches us the glory of the en- 
thronement of intensit}- and thoroughness 
in duty, even though it subjects us to os- 
tracism by our brethren, and persecution 
by the world. 

He was intensely thorough as the boy- 
student in Tarsus. 

He was intensely thorough as the man- 
student in Jerusalem. 

He was intensely thorough in his sup- 
posed duty as a persecutor. 

He was intensely thorough in his soul 
submission as a penitent. 

H was intensely thorough as a saved 
sinner in his consecration. 

He was intensely thorough in his renun- 
ciation of peevish Pharisees, and in his 
adoption of cheerful Christiana. 

He was intensely thorough in his mis- 
sionary work at Damascus, Jerusalem. 
Antioch. Cyprus. Perga, Pisidian Anti- 
och of Iconium, Lystra, Derbe. and in his 
pitched battles for the truth in both the 
Syrian and Judean Capitals. 

This is the one great duty demanded by 
these transitional times — intense thor- 
oughness as American Christians, laboring 
in the light of modern events and charged 
with the salvation of new nations : in- 
tense thoroughness in duty as preachers, 



PAUL BEGINNING HIS COURSE. 



153 



as officials, as members in the Church, 
as workers in the schools, as organized 
missionaries to mankind. Let this Paul- 
ine thoroughness till and thrill us, and 
though we shall have some of the 
Pauline sufferings, yet we shall have 
many of the Pauline raptures, and we 
will join him in singing, •• These light 
afflictions, which are but for a moment, 



work out for us a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory, while we look not 
at the things that are seen, but at the 
things that are not seen, for the things 
that are seen are temporal, but the things 
that are not seen are eternal." Such ever- 
lasting riches are sufficient fortune for any 
man. Therefore. " So run that ye may 
attain.'" Amen. 



Paul Continuing His Course* 



"I therefore so run not as uncertainly." — I. Cor. ix : 26. 



HAVING, for the wide world, won 
the inestimable boon of liberty, St. 
Paul returned to Antioch with 
laurels of victory resting on his brow ; 
and, having set the Church in order 
there, the old mission hunger beset him 
once more. The eternal "go" of that Mas- 
ter who had sent him would not let him 
stay. Peter consistently inconsistent, suf- 
fers from him a deserved public rebuff, 
because of his sectarian duplicity; and 
Barnabas (who insists on taking his 
cousin, John Mark, who, at Perga, when 
danger appeared, departed from the work) 
notwithstanding the grandeur of the 
man, is set aside, and Paul starts out 
from Antioch, " commended of the breth- 
ren," on the second great stretch of his 
course, taking with him the sturdy and in- 
domitable Silas. Paul was so fleet, prompt 
and firm in the race that not even a Barna- 
bas, with his tongue of thunder and his 
banners of flame, could keep up with him 
in speed. 

And so he, from Antioch, went forth 
again, rounded the northeastern Mediter- 
ranean Bay, on to Tarsus, where he, 
doubtless, preached to his former fellow- 
citizens the unsearchable riches; on 
through the famous Cilician gates to 
Derbe, where he organized the Church; 
on to Lystra again, where he attached the 
shy but trusty Timothy ; on to Iconium, 
where he appointed elders and deacons ; 
on to the Pisidian Antioch, Avhere he ral- 
lied the cohorts into organic unity ; and 
then breaking loose from his former mis- 



sionary grounds, he passed into the virgin 
regions of the fierce and formidable Gauls. 
Gauls who, with their drawn swords, had 
cut their course all the way from an- 
cient France, through warlike Italy and 
heroic Greece, till they triumphantly es- 
tablished themselves in the western 
regions of Asia Minor. 

Before the weeping gaze of these Gala- 
tians he " painted, lustrously and large, 
the affecting picture of the Cross," till the 
national Capitals of Pessinus, Tavium 
and Ancyra, fell before its charm, sub- 
dued, and felt the arrows dipped in blood. 
Next, though suffering from ophthal- 
mia his stake, or " thorn in the flesh," he 
westward turned, confirming the new- 
formed Gallic churches, and steering un- 
der the base of high Olympus, he was 
minded to cross the mythologic Pile and 
preach the Word to the much neglected 
Bythinians ; but the Holy Spirit broke up 
the plan which he had "for himself so dif- 
ferently rough-hewn," and urged him down 
on the " ringing plains of windy Troy." 
Troy, with her " many-fountained hill." 
Troy, where every step was classic ground. 
Troy, where great Ajax, Achilles and 
Hector did contend. Troy, so much by 
Homer and so sweetly sung. Troy, where 
Priam and his sons poured out their lives 
in floods of blood, rather than surrender 
the notorious Helen to the Greeks. To 
this Troy Paul and his comrades, Silas 
and Timotlry, came, but, with no classic 
witcheries of the place, for a moment is the 
zeal of the Captain of this new Christian 



156 



PAUL CONTINUING HIS COURSE. 



Odyssey abated. His mind is full of 
other and higher thoughts. And amid his* 
stately musing on the mind of heaven, in 
the night-time, in arms before him, stands 
a soldier of Macedonia, calling and waft- 
ing across the sea, " Come over and help 
us." The divine vision decides the course. 
Next morning finds him on the pier, with 
his newly attached companion and physi- 
cian, Luke, watching for a vessel for 
Europe bound. Soon they sail over an 
arc of that sea which has been fitly called 
"the marriage ring of nations," and land- 
ing at Neapolis, start afoot, "feeling that 
the day is short, the work abundant, the 
laborers remiss," and the Master pressing. 
A few hours' walk through the bloom and 
odor of fruits and flowers brings them to 
Philippi, the monumental city of both 
Greece and Rome. 

And now St. Paul finds himself, for the 
first time, in an European city. As usual, 
he seeks the synagogues as the first place 
of attack. But finding none in this mili- 
tary agricultural town, he passed along 
the riverside, hoping to discover, at least, 
a prayer-house. In this he found the 
amiable purple seller, Lydia, with other 
women. To her and her company he 
preached the Gospel, and on the spot 
raised up a new Macedonian Phalanx, 
which was to shake the world. 

As he continued to preach, the crowd 
increased, till Satan sought to spoil his 
popularity by putting it into the mind of 
a Delphic Pythoness to join the throng on 
the streets and cry after Paul and his # 
companions, "These are the servants of 
the Most High God, which show unto us 
the way of salvation." But Paul, not 
wishing any such cheap advertisement, 
turned in his path and said to the Pytho, 



" I enjoin thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
to go out of her," and immediately the 
broken harmony of the girl's fractured 
nature was restored. But now this filled 
her stock owners with a vengeance which 
resolved to wreak itself upon the Apostle 
and his comrades, since " the hope of their 
gains was gone ; " and so they rushed to 
the Imperial Praetors and entered their 
complaint. The provincial Duumvers 
summoned the lictors to the lash, and 
they, with all the brutality of the lowest 
garroters, inflicted those pangs of butchery 
which, in the high state of spiritual 
rapture in which God enswathed his ser- 
vants, seemed strangely painless; for, 
when flung into the dungeon pillory, with 
feet fastened in the stocks, Paul and Silas 
sang such praises as woke the convicts, 
shook the prison with earthquake throb- 
bing, and made the " stifling and lightless 
durance " sweet with songs of perfect tri- 
umph, and wrung from the lips of the ter- 
rified jailer the anxious cry, " What must 
I do to 'be saved ? " Whilst, with the 
dawn of day, the Duumvers besought Paul 
and Silas to depart in haste, lest some 
direful malediction should fall upon the 
city. 

Since the field of Philippi had been 
ploughed by the share of truth, and sown 
with Gospel Germs, and watered with 
loyal blood, St. Paul departed to the next 
large city, Thesalonica, which Cassander 
had re-founded and named after his lovely 
wife, the favorite daughter of Philip of 
Macedon. 

Here, for three successive Sabbaths, 
with the weals fresh on his back, he at- 
tacked the fortress of the J ews, and dis- 
peopled the throngs of Zeus ; until at last, 
by the incessant severity of his industry, 



PAUL CONTINUING HIS COURSE. 



157 



the crisis culminated, and hating and 
hounding Jews laid siege against his life by 
mobbing the house of Jason. The right 
work having been completed, under cover 
of the night, he next was off for Berea, 
fifty miles away, where the open-minded 
people commended themselves to him, in 
that as he preached "they searched the 
Scriptures daily to see whether these 
things were so." But at length the in- 
flammable rush of Jewish rage had dis- 
covered where the Arch-apostate, as they 
called him, was, and instantly despatched 
their emissaries to stir the storms and 
levy whirlwinds of wrath and violence 
upon this single-handed Hercules of God. 
Their motto seemed to be, strike the 
leader, and the sheep will scatter ; and so 
Paul left the brethren along the route, to 
set in order .what was wanting, and to 
water the good seed which had begun to 
spring, while he went down to the port of 
Dium, and there, companionless, sailed 
for Athens. He soon sped past the snowy 
peaks of Olympus, melting in the distant 
blue ; past Ossa Pelion and Thermopy- 
lae — all "voiceful with heroic mem- 
ories" — round the "marbled steep of Su- 
nium," and so on into the lovely harbor, 
with its forest of masts, where the Par- 
thenon and Propylse fell full upon his 
view. Up the streets of the mother of 
arts and eloquence he passes, with her 
statues and temples on every hand. On 
one of these his quick eye sees inscribed, 
"Agnosto Theo" (To the Unknown God). 
This he takes for a text, and rushing into 
the very Agora, on Mars Hill, where Soc- 
rates had taught, and whence he went 
forth to drink the hemlock, and gathering 
the grammarians, pedagogues, gymnasts, 
professors, tutors, arguers, discoursers 



and lecturers around, opened fire upon 
them in the very heart of their polished 
corruptions from the rock-hewn steps of 
their own Areopagus. Unawed by the 
dignity of his lofty listeners, he tore away 
the shrouds of ancient idolatries, and be- 
tween the cloven rifts pointed them to 
that Unknown God whom they uncon- 
sciously adored. Having thus in the heart 
of the very Capital of the world's philoso- 
phy struck with right and left polythe- 
ism and pantheism, and made the shrine 
of the Pantheon, bound and re-bound 
with the tidings of Jehovah, this wander- 
ing tent-maker left them, and, still un- 
companioned, steered across the sea his 
course to Corinth, where 'neath the shade 
of its Acro-Corinthus, he spent two years 
of his eventful life. 

Into this vast city of proud commerce, 
of abyssmal profligacy, the trysting place 
for the vices of every land, he went heart 
first. He cared nothing for Isthmian 
games and splendid buildings decked with 
pillars of marble and porphyry. He eyed 
not the lovely stadium, the youthful 
athlete, the race and boxing matches, or 
the fading garlands of Isthmian pine, ex- 
cept to grace a moral or point a tale. He 
was there to unveil to this Parisian London 
of the Roman Empire the Son of God 
Himself as the Saviour of mankind ; and 
his missionary fund having long since 
been drained, with Aquila and Pricilla he 
worked during the day and preached to 
the heterogeneous masses on Sundays and 
at nights. As usual, expelled from the 
Synagogue, he preached in the house of 
Justus till Corinth was in a holy blaze, 
and the name of Jesus became to many 
" The Name high over all." 

Here, too, he began to write those im- 



158 



PAUL COXTIXUIXG HIS COURSE. 



mortal letters, mid bursts of tears, which 
have been sending down through the ages 
"ever swelling trumpet blasts of truth." 

Timoth} T , and Silas and Luke had ar- 
rived with tidings from the young churches 
of Macedonia, and the condition of Thes- 
alonica demanded special attention. Ac- 
cordingly the bent and weary Jew sum- 
moned his amenuensis and dictated the 
First Epistle to the Thesalonians, which 
describes so deftly the coming of the Lord 
in this the last great epoch of God's deal- 
ings with mankind, which when completed 
"the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of an 
archangel and with the trump of God." 
Then some having misconstrued his mean- 
ing, and drifted from their moorings, be- 
cause they thought he referred to the 
'•actual instancy" of that sublime epiph- 
any, it was needful for him to write once 
more and tell them that if any would not 
work neither should they eat. and assure 
them that the coming of the Great Master 
need not dissuade them from their worldly 
duties, for He would not come till the man 
of sin should be fully revealed, a revela- 
tion which has since been slowly and 
steadily coming to pass and. therefore, 
they were not to be suddenly shaken in 
spirit, and anxious, as though the day of 
the Lord were at hand, — a proclamation 
against immature adventism to the end of 
time. Things are not so soon to be re- 
manded into a limbo of indistinguishable 
ruin. 

And now that St. Paul had for the time 
achieved his mission in Corinth, he pre- 
pares to re-visit Jerusalem for the fourth 
time since his conversion. He had entered 
it once as a new convert who unsuccess- 
fully assayed to join himself to the disci- 



ples. He entered it again with a collec 
tion from the opulent church of Antioch 
for the poor saints. He entered it again 
as the champion of the Gentile Christians, 
to break down the needless and contract- 
ing ceremony of circumcision. He would 
enter it now as the embassador of fratern- 
ity and brotherly love, who would keep 
whole the seamless robe of his Eedeemer. 
And so passing down to Cenchrea and put- 
ting out to sea he sailed through the balmy 
isles of the Grecian Archipelago and 
touched at Ephesus. Here he preached at 
least one grand discourse in the Jewish 
Synagogue, and. in answer to earnest en- 
treaties, left a promise that he would re- 
turn and point out more fnlly the paths of 
the Lord. A few more weeks brought him 
to Jeruselem where his reception was as 
usual cold and ungracious. Hastily ter- 
minating his visit, and tired of Jewish mi- 
progressive peevishness, he passed up to 
Antioch where, having given and received 
kindliest greetings, he passed once more 
through the gates of Taurus and so on over 
his old missionary ground, confirming on 
his way the churches, and ordering a 
weekly offering for the poor at Jerusa- 
lem. 

He is now fairly out on what has been 
called his third missionary journey, and 
having secured the foundations which he 
laid in the past he swept down from the 
uplands of Phrygia, and caught a second 
view of that Marseilles of the .Egean ; 
that hostelry of east and west, " that third 
Capital of Apostolic Christianity.'' where 
he spent three years of his busy life. This 
Ephesus nestled in the fair Asian meadow 
neath the protecting shade of Coressus 
and Prion. Ephesus where Anacreon 
sung, where Apelles studied his immortal 



PAUL CONTINUING HIS COURSE, 



159 



art, and where the deepest of all Greek 
thinkers rose and fell. Ephesus with her 
extensive commerce, with her " veneered 
vices." Ephesus with her lovely grove of 
Leto, her gorgeous temple of Artemis, and 
all her hoary and venerable associations. 
Epnesus the most magnificent of the 
magnificent cities of Asia. Into this city 
of the mother of the Gods came the lonely 
wandering ambassador, and saw at a 
glance that a great door and effectual was 
open to him, though there were many 
adversaries. Aquila and Priscilla he had 
left there, and the fervid orator Apollos 
had been there, but little however was 
done till he himself arrived. 

The Jews, as usual after hearing his 
doctrine, rose with all the virulence of 
rage to thwart his purpose and impede his 
progress. But evacuating their synago- 
gue he hired the hall of Tyrannus and 
preached with such power that " all they 
that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the 
Lord Jesus both Jews and Greeks." Here 
St. Paul still in his full flushed prime and 
scarred with the brands of his Lord 
reached the highest pinnacle of popu- 
larity. 

The people used the aprons which he 
wore at his trade and the handkerchiefs 
which he used at the mammoth meetings, 
to bring back their friends who were step- 
ping over into the great unsearched border- 
land. The sorcerers and magicians 
brought their cabalistic and much prized 
books and burned publicly over $8,000 
worth of them in one bon-fire. 

The crowds who came from all the sur- 
rounding country to worship the great 
goddess Diana, of the temple of Artemis, 
now came to hear the words of Life and 
to worship the God of earth and heaven. 



And such was the sacred spell of his la- 
bors that the great May Artemisian fair, 
which had attracted a vast concourse from 
all parts with the splendor of its revelries, 
now was a failure. Paul and his preach- 
ing were in all mens' mouths and minds. 
Demetrius headed a trades union of the 
silver-smiths who had lived by making 
miniature shrines of the elegant temple, 
and raised such a riot as had not been 
known in Ephesus for many a day. 

But out of this undignified and un- 
justifiable measure, Paul came off vic- 
toriously "feeding his faithfulness on 
suffering," and confirming his adherents 
in the ways of the Lord. 

In the meantime near the close of his 
three years, ministry, news arrived from 
the Corinthians which showed that they 
felt it difficult in that city of sensuality 
and dishonesty to continue giving up 
the " coarse and near for the immaterial 
and the far," and that even divisions were 
dangerously mooted among them. He 
sat down and composed a canon of truth 
and made it flash across the sea, the in- 
telligence that " love and unity may and 
must exist amid diversit} r of opinions," 
that great principles must decide petty 
details that the voluptious offender must 
be disciplined, and that whilst they lived 
in this world like their master they must 
not be of it. 

As soon as he had fired this mighty gun 
he immediately despatched the trusty 
Titus to watch what execution it per- 
formed, and appointed Troas as a trysting 
place to meet and report. Having finished 
his work in Ephesus the Apostle was 
soon again on his way. The old mission- 
ary hunger had again seized his heart and 
he arrived in Troas too soon to meet 



160 



PAUL CONTINUING HIS COURSE. 



Titus who seems to have been unex- 
pectedly detained. But though St. Paul 
saw a door was opened to him in Troas he 
had no rest because he found not Titus, 
and so, as soon as trysting days were 
done, under intense tension of mind, he 
set out again for Europe, now for the 
second time. Landing at Xeapolis he set 
out afoot to strengthen the churches 
burdened with desire to meet his friend. 
At length in Macedonia Titus arrived 
with the much needed news from the 
Corinthian seat of war. 

The effect of the Epistle had been satis- 
factory. Unity had been restored, the 
offender disciplined, and the church de- 
livered from its worldly trending. 

Still much was yet to be accomplished. 
Judaizers had come fresh from Jerusalem 
and with their insidious slanders and 
oblique inuendoes were at work under- 
mining the Apostle's authority. Like 
an injured father he calls his amanuensis 
and dictates the second Epistle to the 
Corinthians, through which he swings his 
thunder-heads upon the cunning corrup- 
tionists, and showed that though he was 
not called by the twelve to the work, he 
was called by the Lord Himself. And so 
though born later he was equal to any. 

And thus he defended his claim : -Are 
the other apostles Hebrews ? So am I. 
Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 
Are they ministers of Christ ? (I speak 
as one beside himself ) I more. In labors 
more abundant, in stripes above measure, 
in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 
Of the Jews five times received I forty 
stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten 
with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I 
suffered shipwreck — a night and a day, 
have I been in the deep. In journey- 



ings often ; in perils of waters ; in perils of 
robbers ; in perils by mine own country- 
men ; in perils by the heathen ; in perils 
in the city ; in perils in the wilderness ; 
in perils in the sea; in perils among false 
brethren. In weariness and painfulness ; 
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst; 
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 
Beside those things that are without that 
which cometh upon me daily, the care of 
all the churches. Who is weak and I am 
not weak? Who is made to stumble and 
I burn not ? If I must needs glory I will 
glory in those things which concern mine 
infirmities, that the power of Christ may 
rest upon me."* 

And now after St. Paul had sent the 
document to Corinth and had passed 
through all the regions of Macedonia, en- 
couraging the churches with much exhor- 
tation, he set forward to Corinth himself 
about the close of the year 57 A. D. 

He had passed through many trials 
since he left it ; new agonies had been 
added to. his life. Eresh scars had been 
made in his frame. His shoulders were 
somewhat more bent now, his hair a more 
decided gray, and the furrows in his face 
by the anxieties of both success and sor- 
row, have been deeper ploughed. Still it 
is the same indomitable spirit, the same 
manly and magnificent soul which at- 
tracts men around it as the magnet filings 
of steel. The news of his coming drew 
a great number of the chief men 
among the brethren from all parts 
of the work — Timothy and Tychicus 
Gaius of Derbe. Jason of Thessalonica, 
Aristarchus and Secundus, Sopater of 
Beroea, Titus, and Luke, and Trophimus 
the Ephesian Greek, and probably many 
others, besides the leaders of the Corinth- 



PAUL CONTINUING HIS COURSE. 



161 



ian Church, such as Justus, Sosthenes, 
Erastus, Tertius, Quartus, Stephanas, 
Fortunatus and Achaicus. And here St. 
Paul, after throwing out his thunders 
against moral contumacy in Corinth, held 
what may be considered the First Metho- 
dist Conference, discussed the work, laid 
plans for its future efficiency, and then 
gave the brethren their appointments. 
But just in the midst of this Conference 
in the house of Justus, and perhaps aris- 
ing out of its deliberations, intelligence was 
gained, perhaps by a special carrier, per- 
haps from some member of the assem- 
blage, that the Judaic cormorants had 
been thrusting their greedy sickles into the 
ripening Galatian grain. With paws 
hooked with ceromonial talons, and beaks 
pointed with historic steel, they had gone 
there to vex and worry the Galatian sheep. 
St. Paul's soul was never more roused. The 
new and fermenting wine of Christianity 
could not be trusted in worn-out and 
burst Jewish bottles. He entered the 
battle single-handed. The fate of the 
conflict rested on his single arm. It was 
no time for reticence nor compromise. 
He flung down the gage of defiance at 
once, and sounded out such trumpet notes 
as stormed the bastions of the enemy. 
The temporary casket of Judaism could 
not contain the ever broadening, deepening 
and hightening truths of Christianity, 
and so on those few sheets of papyrus 
which he despatched to Galatia, he ex- 
pressed his soul in jets of flame which 
awaked those divine echoes that are " to 
roll on from soul to soul and live for ever 
and ever, to tell the race that circumcision 
is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing 
but a new creature in Christ Jesus, and 
that every one by Him may be justified 



from all things from which they could not 
be justified by the law of Moses." 

There were some, too, in that Corinthian 
Conference who told him of the state of 
Christianity in the Eternal City itself, and 
also of the opportunities of planting the 
cross in the far off virgin soil of Spain. 
The Apostle descends from the towering, 
passionate intensity of the Epistle to the 
Galatians, and with the judicial calmness 
of logical lucidity, wrote that immortal 
work which has been justly called the 
Gospel of Protestantism to those Roman 
Christians, many of whom, in various 
parts, had been converted by his own min- 
istry, and others by the transferred 
torches which had been carried thither 
from the flames of the Pentecost. The 
thunder storm which shook his soul when, 
striking with one great shattering blow 
the head of Pharisaism in Galatia, freed 
his spirit from all murkiness, and enabled 
him to sit down with the clear light of the 
sun of righteousness shining in his heart, 
and rear such a theologic temple as has 
furnished polished stones ever since to all 
who have worked to rear a monument of 
God's appointed plan for the salvation of 
mankind — a temple in " whose very 
shrines there seems still to live a choir of 
immortal seraphs who from its arches, 
through the whole world, sing universal- 
ity of ruin, universality of remedy, appli- 
cation of remedy by faith, and evidence of 
faith by action. And in the light of the 
ages, from behind that choir do 'we not 
still hear the illustrious author crying, 
as he gazes upon redeemed millions, "For 
I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ; 
for it is the power of God unto salvation 
to every one that believeth — to the Jew 
first, and also to the Greek ? " What shall 



162 



PAUL CONTINUING HIS COURSE. 



we then say to these things ? If God be 
for us. who can be against us ? 

Let, then, the oleaster of the Gentile 
and the olive branches of the Jew be all 
grafted into this Tree of God. for its roots 
are as wide as the world, and its trunk 
towereth up through the sky. 

St. Paul, having now spent nine months 
in Europe organizing and confirming the 
churches, and in writing to the Galatians 
and Romans, made preparations to go, for 
the fifth and last time, to Jerusalem, 
taking with him a committee who bore a 
munificent collection from the European 
churches to the needy saints of the Ecclesi- 
astical Capital. Under the ^Egis of im- 
partial Roman law. the smouldering fires 
of the wrathful Corinthian Jews dare not 
vent themselves upon him. But being 
fertile in expedient and in collusion with 
the Captain, they plotted to avenge them- 
selves upon him as soon as his ship had 
reached the high seas. 

By some means the murderous plan was 
discovered, and soon as the ship drew up 
her anchor, and unfurled her sail and be- 
gan to move away, Raul sprang from the 
gunwale, clear upon the Corinthian pier, 
while his defeated assassins reluctantly 
sped out to sea. The delay caused by this 
event cut off the Apostle's cherished hope 
of reaching Jerusalem in time for the 
Passover, and as he had now to take the 
circuitous route afoot through Macedonia, 
he could only hope to reach it by Rente- 
cost, fifty days later. The feast, however, 
he kept with Luke at Philippi in honor of 
his Lord, and next gaining the port of 
Neapolis, he chartered a vessel such as 
was required for his company, and the di- 
vine Odyssey was again afloat. Rive days 3 
sail brought them to the classic Troas, 



where twice St. Paul's preaching had been 
cut short by circumstances. He now goes 
ashore, and on Sabbath night, to a vast 
assemblage who devoured his words, 
preached from eve till noon of night, and 
from noon of night till morn, while he re- 
stored the dying Eutyehus during the 
midnight intermission. The people of 
those times were not afraid of long ser- 
mons — hut, then, it Avas Raul who preached. 

Xext day they sailed forward and round 
the Lectium Cape, and so on under the 
shade of venerable poetic mountains, past 
famous cities and vernal isles, past Myti- 
lene. the home of Sappho and cradle of 
lyric song. 

Past Chios, the rocky home of the poet 
Homer, past Miletus, where the strong 
men from Ephesus wept so passionately 
because they should see his face no more 
as they kissed him and said farewell, past 
the perfumed Cos and rosy Rhodes, 
past snow-peaked Cyprus, where he began 
his first missionary work with Barnabas 
the brave, past Tyre, where the Christian 
families knelt upon the surf beat rocks to 
pray blessings on his head, past the vale 
of Sharon, bright with the flowers of 
spring, until at length the band arrived at 
Csesarea. where they enjoyed the gentle 
ministries of the four lovely daughters of 
Philip, the Evangelist, who, like Jephtha's 
daughter, had devoted to the service of 
Christ their virgin lives. Ca^sarea. where 
Agabus. the Judean prophet, untied the 
girdle of Paul's old Avar cloak, and with it 
tying his own hands and feet, said, " Thus 
shall the Jews in Jerusalem bind the 
man Avhose girdle this is. and shall de- 
liver him into the hands of the Gentiles. " 

Cassarea, Avhere, in response to "con- 
vulsive and dissuasive weeping, Christ's 



PAUL CONTINUING HIS COURSE. 



163 



great captive cried through his own blind- 
ing tears, " What mean you to weep and 
break my heart ? I am willing not only to 
go to Jerusalem to be bound, but even to 
die for the name of the Lord Jesus." 

Here we have the spirit of the real am- 
bassador of our Lord. 

Here is no compromise for personal 
safety, no catering to touching and 
tender human sentiment, and no fear of 
facing in the very citadel of ceremonial 
fanaticism that crude, cruel captiousness 
that had so often sought to imbrue its 
murderous hands in his own life blood. 
Christians of Boston, here is a high and 
illustrious example. There are many all 
around us who are wild with desire to tear 
the diadem of divinity from our Re- 
deemer's brow. There are many who 
are furious with a passion to draw 
us from the pure elements of Gospel 
power and plunge us in the abyss 
of idolatrous superstition. There are 
many who, with savage glee, burn to 
quench the revival flames now kindling in 
the masses, and to dilute our simple, sin- 
cere and spiritual services with the fads 
of speculation and the frauds of unbelief. 
Every man and woman of this Temple 
now has the opportunity of standing forth 
and emulating the noble spirit of the 
Great Apostle of us, the Gentiles. By 
prayer, faith, consecration and labor, you 
can gain the high altitude -attained by this 
Chief Apostle. From his lofty height 
you can beckon your comrades on and 
herald humanity upward to its home. 
From that elevation, you can sweep away 
the modern sophistries that seek to hide 



the Christ and crucify mankind on a cross 
of amalgamated errors. 

Up, then, to the duties of your exalted 
privilege to-day. Up and away, above the 
reach of human praise, of luxurious ease, 
of conventional repose, of hypocritical 
scorn, of Arian restraint, of papal spite, 
of universalistic spleen, of spiritistic 
frauds, and the whole Babel of erroneous 
effusions that on every hand threaten to 
deceive the twentieth century with a 
resurrection and rehabilitation of the old- 
time skeletons that so long have misled 
the world. 

Out upon them, one and all, with the 
clear, ringing cry that finds authority for 
its tones from Sinai, pathos for its utter- 
ance from Calvary, a*nd power for its 
proclamation from Pentecost. 

Then shall you feel your souls progress 
in loyalty, your minds grow in truth, 
your hearts flame with love, your speech 
scintillate like sunbeams, and your lives 
glow with glory. 

Then shall you see this temple flame 
with holy zeal, this city shine with 
Gospel splendor, this state, land and 
world shimmer with the beams of the sun 
of righteousness as from a new Apo- 
calypse. 

And when, at last, each of you shall 
come to the end of life's great race, as 
you look behind and see the trailing 
clouds of glory marking the path along 
which you have come, and as you look 
ahead and see the stars you have won 
gathering to cluster in your crown, you 
will be ready, in an ecstacy of rapture, to 
exclaim, " I (too) have not run in vain." 



Paul Finishing His Course 



"I have finished the course." — II. Timothy rv : 7. 



NEXT day Paul is off for the great 
and dangerous city. Xot his sister, 
but Mnason, the Cyprian, is his 
host. "The murderess of the prophets, 
burning with animosity, stood ready to 
make the dagger flash from its scabbard 
upon the slightest signal.*' 

But he is there on his Master's business, 
and what recks he for <; seven-fold heated 
wrath ? " The news of his arrival had 
been received by the elders of the Metro- 
politan Church. They assembled in stately 
conclave, under the "presidency of the stern, 
mysterious James. The bountiful collec- 
tion was placed at his feet by the timid pro- 
vincials, Timothy and Trophimus. The 
hero himself detailed the work accom- 
plished during his third missionary tour. 
They listened with wonder to the glowing 
description as it fell from such earnest 
lips, and then proposed, as a pruden- 
tial and accommodating measure to 
placate the Jews, like Agrippa I., 
that he purchase sixteen sacrificial 
animals for four pauper ZSazarites, and 
with them go into the temple and super- 
vise their expensive and ceremonial 
purification. In the soul of the great 
Apostle there must have been a distrust- 
ful tremor. Xevertheless. to express the 
abundance of his charity, he submitted to 
the expensive and revulsive humiliation, 
and so, as a matter of broad-souled liber- 
ality, he took the needy Xazarites and 
treated them to a free pass through the 
stipulated worship. But sometime near 
the close of the seven appointed days, the 



scarred face, bent frame and well-known 
countenance of the steel-gray veteran, were 
recognized by some Ephesian Jews. In a 
moment the whole precincts of their 
temple were thrown into a paroxysm of 
fury, wnile these Asian Jews sprang on 
Paul, shouting, " Men of Israel, help, this 
is the wretch who teaches all men every- 
where against the people, and the law, and 
the temple. This is the renegade Eabbi, 
the ring-leader of the believers in the 
Hung, who has brought Greeks into the 
temple and polluted this holy place." 
" Kill ! kill ! ! kill ! ! ! rose ringing on 
every hand. The crowd roared, and 
foamed, and swirled like an awful ocean 
convulsed with an earthquake. The whole 
city had felt the shock and was rushing 
together at every entrance with cries, 
" To the rescue." Meantime, the Eoman 
sentinel from the tower of Antonia had 
seen the out-burst and gave the alarm. 
Accustomed to rapid movements, Lysias 
dashed instantly along the cloister roof 
and down the stairs into the court of the 
Gentiles. The mob heard the well-known 
clang of Eoman arms and broke. The 
well-disciplined and heavy-mailed soldiery 
made a lane in the seething human sea 
toward the noble victim, covered with 
bruises and blood. Lysias. thinking he 
must be some desperate character, bound 
his arms to two soldiers, and then asked 
who the man might be, and what he had 
done. Mid unintelligible cries, he marched 
him toward the barracks, where the mob. 
fearing to be balked of vengeance, rushed 



PAUL FINISHING HIS CO UPS E. 



165 



at him with renewed cries of, " Kill ! 
kill ! ! " But the rescue party having 
reached the barracks door, and being about 
to disappear, Paul asked and obtained per- 
mission to speak to the yelling throngs. 
Here, with consummate skill, he narrated 
his Christian experience and melted into 
respectful silence that ferocious multitude, 
who listened with most attentiveness 
till be came to describe his divine com- 
mission to the Gentiles. Then vocif ora- 
tions of simultaneous wrath rose once 
more, and all the howling, raging, yelling, 
cursing, gnashing of teeth and hurling of 
dust into the air which distinguishes the 
fury of an Oriental mob showed that 
Jerusalem was given up to uncontrollable 
fanaticism. 

Examine the prisoner by scourging, was 
the mandate of Lysias, who as yet seems 
to have thought him the atrocious leader 
of the Siccari. To the lictors who had 
stripped him for the horrible fragellum, 
St. Paul quietly said : "Is it lawful for 
you to scourge a Roman who has not been 
tried ? " The Centurion, who knew that 
under these circumstances to scourge a 
Eoman citizen the penalty was death, hast- 
ened to Lysias and bluntly said, " What 
are you about ? The man is a Eoman." 
" Eoman ? Eoman ?" rang through the Cap- 
tain's mind, and hurrying to the prisoner, 
inquired, " Tell me, are you a Eoman ? " 
" Yes ! " was the quiet but firm reply. Gaz- 
ing on his worn and worked appearance, 
Lysias said in a dubious tone, " I know 
how much it cost me to get this citizen- 
ship." " But I have been a citizen from 
my birth," was the calm and dignified re- 
joinder. The claim could not be resisted. 
Paul was unbound, and the lictors laid 
down their lashes. Xext morn Lysias 



had carried the case to the Sanhedrin, and 
Paul was brought before this chief court 
of the Jews. Before the august assem- 
blage Paul began his defense with that able 
familiarity and self-control which becomes 
a king, and said, " Brethren, my public life 
has been spent in all good conscience 
toward God till this day." The rapacious 
and revengeful high priest Ananias 
ordered the officers of the court to smite 
him on the mouth. Stirred with an insult 
undeserved, and flaming with some of that 
indignation which had urged his Master 
to launch such thunderbolts at the heads 
of the flagrant Pharisees, Paul cried, " God 
shall smite thee, thou whited wall ! What, 
dost thou sit there to judge me according 
to the law and in violation of the law 
commandest me to be smitten ?" 

And then, while making an apology 
which showed not only the spirit of a 
saint, but also the breeding of a gen- 
tleman, he seems to have taken into his 
sagacious mind (which rose superbly over 
all emergencies) the composition of that 
judicial assembly. 

Here, on one side of the long row of 
seats, sat the Pharisees, who believe in 
both resurrection and spirit. There, on 
the other, the Saducees, who believe in 
neither ; and so he cried out over the 
Babel of tongues, "Brethren, I am a 
Pharisee, a son of Pharisees, and I am 
being judged about the hope and resurrec- 
tion of the dead." The stratagem acted 
like magic. In a moment they were at 
each other's throats, and during the furor 
of the excitement Lysias, fearing that 
Paul should be torn to pieces by even 
learned and venerable hands, ordered his 
soldiers to snatch him from their midst, 
while the Lord appeared that night and. 



166 



PAUL FIXISHIXG HIS COURSE. 



in a vision, said, " Cheer thee, Paul, for as 
thou hast borne witness for me at Jerusa- 
lem, so must thou bear witness at Borne." 

The inveterate virulence of the Jews 
now rose to the highest pitch. Forty se- 
lect men took a solemn oath that they would 
neither eat nor drink till they had killed 
Paul. According to the plot terms, the 
Sanhedrin was to have the Commandant 
bring him down next day, under pretext 
of inquiring more accurately into his 
case, and they would break through the 
" slim belt of Roman steel " and kill him 
ere he reached the Court. A nephew of 
St. Paul, hearing of the murderous scheme, 
first informed his uncle, and then Lysias, 
and that very night at nine o'clock Paul 
was on his way to Caesarea. under an es- 
cort of four hundred legionaries and lan- 
cers, and must have made a great sensa- 
tion among the band of Christians there 
who. about two weeks before, had parted 
with the great teacher with so many 
affecting tears. 

But St. Paul was one of those men who 
could suffer disgrace, exile and imprison- 
ment and still be happy and powerful, and 
so, when five days afterward Ananias, the 
high priest, and Tertullus, the legal ora- 
tor of Jerusalem, and the rulers made a 
dead set against him, before Felix, the Bo- 
man governor, in three terrible counts, he 
defended himself with such skill and elo- 
quence that Felix would not deliver him 
up to them, and gave the centurion in- 
structions that St. Paul's imprisonment 
should be as much tempered with lenity 
as possible, and that his custody should 
not exclude him from the privilege of see- 
ing his friends who came to visit him. 

And now this very incarceration at 
Caesarea, although it breaks up the rang- 



ing round the world which St. Paul for 
twenty years had practiced, yet it af- 
forded the noble Gospel knight an oppor- 
tunity of preaching to the highest classes 
in society. 

It was here that he reasoned on righteous- 
ness, continence and judgment, till Felix, 
the royal voluptuary, trembled, and Bra- 
silia, the licentious princess, blushed for 
fear and shame. 

It was here that Paul, the prisoner, as- 
tonished the ears of Festus with his 
manly thoughts and able address, which 
crested in Caesarem appello. 

It was here that, in the presence of 
blazing jewels, and golden circlets, and all 
the pomp of scarlet paludament and 
imperial purple — in the presence of cap- 
tains, governors and gay cavaliers in 
gleaming armor — he launched out upon 
that lull tide of sacred and impassioned 
oratory which, mid the fires of its in- 
tensity, started from the quivering lips of 
King Agrippa the exclamation, " Almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian," 
and demonstrated to the royal throngs 
that not only was he no common prisoner, 
but also that he preached the most majestic 
and matchless Christ. Aye. and it was 
here that doubtless many of those strange 
foundation stones were laid, deep in the 
dungeon's gloom, which, long after the 
Apostle's race was run, sprang up into 
fair edifices of Christian life in many parts 
of the world. 

Shortly after that most masterly speech 
before Herod, king of Chalcis. Paul, 
having appealed to Caesar, was on his way 
to Borne in charge of Julius, a centurion 
of an Augustan cohort, an imperial guard 
which had been sent out of Italy on some 
praetorian mission. 



PAUL FINISHING HIS COURSE. 



167 



It was late in August when the venera- 
ble Apostle, with his right wrist chained 
to a soldier, sailed on a merchantman of 
Adramyttiuin from Cassarea, where he 
had spent two years of his prison life. 
The voyage began happily. The first day 
ont they reached Sidon, where Paul, by 
the sensible and kindly Julius, was al- 
lowed to go on parole, while the ship lay 
to for a day, to see some Sidonian friends. 
But from that time forward, the sailing 
season being now nearly past, the voyage 
was filled with one disaster after another, 
till tinally the whole party suffered ship- 
wreck. Th^ baffling Etesian storms seized 
them so that they had to leave Cyprus on 
the starboard and sail under its lee. Af- 
ter they passed Cyprus, by aid of land 
breezes and skillful tacking, they were 
able to reach Myra, the former Capital of 
Lycia. Here they abandoned the small 
coaster for a large Alexandrian wheat 
ship, which had been coping with the 
fierce Etesians, and now proposed to creep 
from island to island north of Crete, and 
so to the south of Cytheria and across to 
S} r r.icuse. But in this they were disap- 
pointed, for the storm swept them away 
down from the promontory of Cnidus, 
south of Crete, until they came to a poor 
port called Fair Havens. Here, however, 
Paul, whose personal ascendency was be- 
ginning to be felt, told them to winter, as 
further voyaging would result in loss of 
cargo and ship and exposure even of 
their lives. The Captain, however, not 
knowing Paul sufficiently to be able to 
confide in his counsel, refused to take 
his advice, and put out again to sea, in the 
hope of making the more favorable harbor 
Phenice. 

The great mainsail was hoisted, and 



the ship, obeying the helm, sped splen- 
didly. But they had not been long out 
when the whole dome of heaven began to 
frown, and down from the black moun- 
tains of cloud the great winter Typhoon 
leaped like a huge leviathan, and, seizing 
the ship on its wings, bore her far past 
Phenice, with all the fierce howlings of 
Euroclydon. The sails, masts and cordage 
were torn away as with the tusks of an 
omnipotent giant. The moaning white- 
haired floods dashed madly, like bellowing 
bulls, against the prow. The ponderous 
creature groaned in agony and began to 
leak. The frappings were wrapped around 
the reeling hulk with but little avail. 
The nearly three hundred mortals threw 
overboard that which was portable, to 
keep the vessel from plunging under the 
billows. 

The moonless heavens and the leaden, 
sunless clouds frowned grimly, as if the 
storm were but begun. 

The famished sea-soaked sailors looked 
upon their fate under these circumstances, 
in a fast sinking ship, as sealed. They 
all must soon go down in the swirling bil- 
lows. In this desperate crisis, there was 
but one lone man who knew in whom he 
had believed, and maintained a calm cour- 
age that seemed astonishing to all. It 
was Paul, the venerable prisoner, who 
stood up in the midst of the dripping, de- 
spairing group and said, with that calm 
sublimity which ever characterized him 
in the greatest straits : " Sirs, be of good 
cheer, for there shall be no loss of any 
man's life among you. The ship only shall 
be destroyed ; for there stood by me this 
night the angel of God, whose I am and 
whom I serve, saying, 'Fear not, Paul; 
thou must be brought before Caesar, and, 



168 



PAUL FINISHING HIS COURSE. 



lo, God hath given thee all them that 
sail with thee.' 99 

At the reviving words, the despairing 
men resumed their hope, and, with their 
efforts in keeping the weltering hulk afloat, 
contributed their share to the fulfilment 
of the prophecy ; and on the fourteenth 
night of that fearful storm the roar of 
" shore-shattered breakers" broke on the 
keen sailor's ear through the gloom. This, 
with the white, phosphorescent gleam, 
like a line of ghosts on the surf-beaten 
beach, assured them land was in sight. 
Dropping the lead, they found twenty and 
fifteen fathoms, and heaving out the four 
anchors, awaited the day. 

The first faint marge of gray revealed 
the sea curling with a huge and furious 
surf upon an unknown shore, and the 
selfish sailors were about to launch the 
life-boat and leave the prisoners and pas- 
sengers to their fate. The practiced eye 
of Paul saw the danger, and he quietly ob- 
served to Julius, " If these sailors do not 
stay in the ship, you cannot be saved." 
Under the order of the centurion, a dozen 
swords flashed from their scabbards and 
cut through the boat's ropes and let her 
fall into the floods. 

Next, mid the calming assurances of 
the Apostle, the shore was inspected, and 
a low mud bank between two shelving 
rocks was descried. Hoisting the fore- 
sail — all that was left them — cutting 
away the anchors and manning the helm, 
the almost sunken ship was run in here 
and struck her prow immovably fast in 
the yielding clay and marked the spot 
which is known as St. Paul's Landing to 
this day. The sea, as if maddened at 
loss of its prey, in wild fury wrecked the 



stern. The swimmers leaped over the 
bow, and those who could not swim em- 
barked on broken pieces of the ship ; and so 
it came to pass that they all escaped safe 
to land. 

The land proved to be Malta, and the 
Maltese kindled a fire to dry and warm 
the sufferers. From the blazing bramble 
a venomous viper fastened upon Paul's 
hand. The natives, noticing that he was 
a prisoner, whispered to each other he 
must be a murderer ; but when he coolly 
shook off the reptile, they changed their 
minds and said he was a god. 

Here we learn the value of a man. 
Here, for Paul's sake, the whole two 
hundred and seventy-five were saved. 
Here, for his sake, his fellow-prisoners 
were delivered ; and here for his sake, the 
whole island became an asylum of kindly 
tendance to both passengers and crew 
during their three month's winter stay. 
Here Paul raised the father of the gov- 
ernor, Publius, from his feverish prostra- 
tion, and the rumor ranging round the 
entire island caused the sick to run to 
to him for remedy. 

With winter past and sailing season 
fair in the harbor of Valet ta, he em- 
barked on the Castor and Pollux for 
Rome, and objects of increasing historic 
interest rose on every hand. He sailed 
past Syracuse and Etna and the huge, then 
ever-flashing cone of Stromboli, until at 
length he anchored in the lovely bay of 
Putcoli, -beside Vesuvius, which was as 
yet a slumbering infant. Here Paul 
preached; then on, afoot, past Capua, 
through the rich vineyards of Southern 
Italy, through the Pontine marshes, 
through Appi Forum and the Tres Taber- 



PAUL FINISHING HIS COURSE. 



169 



nas, where the news of his coming had at- 
tracted Christian brethren all the way 
from Rome. 

Cheered by this human sympathy, he 
thanked God and took courage, and then 
on along the Appian Way, with its stately 
tombs and endless streams of travelers, 
till finally the suburban villas, the Alban 
hills, the Capitol and the imperial palace 
assured the practiced eye of the experi- 
enced veteran that at length he was in 
Rome. Here he was given from the 
friendly custody of Julius into the charge 
of the honest and soldierly Burrus, and was 
leniently confined in his own hired house, 
in charge of a guardsman, who kept him. 
Here again, as at Cassarea, he improved 
the peculiar oppportunity which his im- 
prisonment afforded, and preached not 
only to all who came in to see him, but 
also to soldier after soldier who had him 
in charge, till the Gospel permeated the 
finest regiment in the world, which was 
afterwards known as the " Thundering Le- 
gion," and supplanted the Silver Eagles of 
the empire by the more imperial badge of 
the Cross. With his old-time fiery energy, 
he flung the flambeaus of a free salvation 
full on every hand among the two mil- 
lion inhabitants of Rome till the truth 
took hold and spread both near and far. 

But there was one character who for a 
time stood sadly in the way. It was the 
Emperor Nero. Nero, incurably vicious 
and incurably frivolous. Nero, the inhu- 
man, careless and miserable youth. Nero, 
who had been guilty of every crime under 
heaven. Nero, the wholesale robber; the 
pitiless despot; the vile intriguer; 
the shameless murderer; the sickening 
matricide; the splendid liar; the cringing 



coward; the gluttonous drunkard and 
incestuous incendiary. This monster ; this 
butcher, caused the flames of persecution 
to roar throughout the Roman Capital 
until the tarred martyrs stood like fag- 
gots in his palace gardens to illume the 
darkness of the Roman night. 

But St. Paul, who was a great favorite 
with the soldiery, for a long time was 
screened from his unreasonable wrath, and 
when he could not speak, wrote at inter- 
vals those immortal epistles which you 
all know as the Epistles of the Captivity. 
It was now he wrote that undying ode of 
joy in sorrow, the letter to the Philippians, 
which has come to all sorrowing Christian 
hearts like an everlasting benediction, 
crying, " Rejoice in the Lord always, and 
again I say, rejoice." 

It was now he wrote that inimitable 
epic, the Epistle to the Colossians, which 
comes dow r n to us like a divine pleroma 
heralding humanity around the majesty 
of Christ, crying, " For by Him were all 
things created that are created ; whether 
they be thrones, or dominions, or princi- 
palities or powers, all things were created 
by Him and for Him, and He is before all 
things, and by Him all things cohere." 
"He is the Head of the Body, the Church, 
who is the beginning, the first born from 
the dead, that in all things He might 
have the pre-eminence." 

It was now he wrote that glorious 
Magna Charta of emancipation, which 
Wilberforce and Lincoln long after 
stamped upon the transformed sentiment 
of the world, the Epistle to Philemon, 
concerning the liberation of his Christian 
slave, Cnesimus, in which, with a noble 
grandeur, he called the transformed fugi- 



170 



PAUL FINISHING HIS COURSE. 



* 



tive slave no longer a servant, but a 
brother and a man. 

It was now, also, that he wrote that 
powerful paean of the heavenlies, the 
Epistle to the Ephesians, with all its 
magnificent generality, and soars its in- 
structions into the loftiest of evangelic- 
Psalms, and then, swooping down, seizing 
on the military symbolism which he daily 
saw around him, called, as from the very 
heavens, to the faltering Ephesians in the 
thick of the battle, " Be strong in the 
Lord, and in the power of His might put 
on the whole armor of God, that ye may 
be able to stand against the wiles of the 
Devil." 

And now, for the present having accom- 
plished his two years'* prison work at 
Eome, he was released, after being tried, in 
64 A. D. And back he goes in the face 
of the flames of Xeronian persecution to 
his evangelistic ranging. Hoary and 
prematurely aged, as he is, he cannot, like 
that other veteran, John Wesley, whom in 
many matters he much resembles, rest so 
long as he has a tongue to speak. He 
skirts the churches reared on the Mediter- 
ranean seaboard, and tradition says he 
went even so far as to open the virgin 
soil of Spain. We cannot tell his route. 
Luke, his historiographer, long since has 
been silent, and all we know we gather 
from his three remaining letters, from 
which we learn that he fanned the 
flames of Christian zeal all around the 
Mediterranean shores, till they rose higher 
and glowed grander than all the fires of 
persecutions, and during this time, in some 
respite, he wrote his first two pastoral 
manuals, one to Timothy, his dearly 
beloved son, who had been newly ordained 



to the Episcopate of Ephesus, and the 
other to the trusted Titus, whom he left 
in charge of the churches of Crete. And 
then, with the storm centering about him, 
and the persecutors marking him as their 
chief prey, he arrives at Troas, where, 
while preaching, imperial inquisitors seize 
him and hurry him away again to Eome 
as the chief disturber of the world's 
gilded corruptions. We know not the 
scenes of the inarch. We do know he 
was taken so abruptly that he had not 
time to take his old war cloak in which 
he had wrapped himself, in damp and 
dreary dungeons, and in which he had 
often slept under the star-lit sky. We 
know that he had not time to t ike along 
his books, nor his much loved parch- 
ments, and that this time when he 
reached Rome there was no friendly 
Julius to commend him to the lenity of a 
still more friendly Burrus, for Xero was 
raging, and Tygellinus was thirsting for 
more Christian gore. And so the much 
marred and well-worn Apostle was cast 
into the common criminals' prison to await 
his impending fate. The Eoman Christians 
had b^en slaughtered and scattered like 
sheep, so that in the solitude of an almost 
total loneliness the veteran was left 
alone with his Lord. 

During those sad days, over which one 
can scarce but weep, there rested no cloud 
upon his soul, no gloom within his heart. 
The glowing cheer of a well-won fight 
and of a grandly accomplished race in 
company with his God, comforts him with 
unspeakable joys and enswathes him with 
immeasurable hope, and with the strong, 
rich vein of friendship in him still, like a 
departing victor, he grasps his pen and 



PAUL FINISHING HIS COURSE. 



170a 



writes his last recorded words — the Sec- 
ond Epistle to Timothy — in which he 
urges him to be faithful and brave, as he 
had tried to be, and then rising to the sub- 
limity of the victor's shout, he utters his 
last words of triumph from the mouth of 
the tomb to the man whom he loved and 
trusted most: "But watch thou in all 
things ; endure afflictions ; do the work of 
an evangelist ; make full proof of thy 
ministry, for I am now ready to be offered, 
and the time of my departure is at hand. 
I have fought a good fight. I have fin- 
ished my course. I have kept the faith." 
And then he touchingly adds : " Come and 
see me shortly. Come, and bring my old 
dreadnaught with you from Troas, and 
the books and the parchments. Come and 
see me before winter. Come and receive 
my last blessing before I die." Thus, out 
of a natural miserere there rises a Vincit 
Deus that shows us the closing cheer 
which gilded with rosy glory the moun- 
tainous clouds beyond which he soared. 
Well may we all exclaim, in the eloquent 
words of Martineau, "Glorious Apostle, 
would that every leader's voice could 
burst, as he falls, into such a trumpet 
sound, thrilling the young hearts that 
pant in the good fight with such a swell 
of valor as would never despair of vic- 
tory." And so the dial-plate of eternity 
had marked that the hour had come, and 
to catch even a glimpse of that earthly 
end we must be guided now by a tradition 
which is so highly probable that we may 
almost dignify it by the name of history. 

A majority of the balls cast into the 
voting urn were black. The distinguished 
prisoner was condemned to die. He was 
led through the city wall by the gate now 



known by his name. He was conducted 
to a piece of rising ground, where he 
knelt upon the emerald sward, and then 
the sword flashed in the light of the 
morning sun, and the head that had the 
highest thoughts of any man on earth 
was shorn away, and as it bounded from 
the earth it sanctified the spot its blood 
had stained. 

To his memory, on that spot is reared 
one of the richest cathedrals in the world, 
and abroad o'er all the earth has gone his 
regenerating soul, everywhere to renew and 
set men free. Thus, in startling tragedy, 
finished he his most illustrious course. 
But the diadem of victory rests forever 
on his brow. There were foes encountered 
by this hero of the Christ that are com- 
mon to all really ardent and courageous 
souls, as they wax valiantly on in the good 
fight still. 

Like him at Jerusalem, you may have 
the coldness of critical and captious breth- 
ren to endure. 

Like him at Lystra, you may have vacil- 
lating and cruel peltings to suffer. 

Like him in all places, you may have 
harsh asperities and contracting circum- 
scriptions of Pharisees to meet. 

Like him in every battle, you may have 
the devices of Satan to withstand. 

Like him in all his journeyings, you 
may have the severities of nature to over- 
come. 

Like him at Corinth, you may have the 
inconstancy and disloyalty of professing 
friends to subdue. 

Like him in Borne, you may finally fall 
beneath the harsh Neronianism of a perse- 
cuting world ; but if faithful, as was he, 
you will have the same truth and love to 



1706 



PAUL FIXISHIXG HIS COURSE. 



sustain 3'ou, the same blessed Saviour and 
comforting Spirit to console you, the same 
loving Father to uphold you, and the same 
victor's shout leaping in your heart when 
you come to die. I have fought a good 
fight; I have finished the course; I have 
kept the faith ; henceforth, then, is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me 
in that clay ; and not to me only, but to 
all them also who love His appearing." 

But it is well ever to bear in mind the 
springs of the Apostle's marvelous power. 
These were Christ's truth and love. Hence, 
he cried to the Philippians : -I can do all 
things through Christ who strengthened 
me." He could say this because Christ is 
the Fountain of Truth and Love, and so he 
was willing to die for the Lord Jesus be- 
cause He was truth and love. St. Paul's 
whole life, from his conversion, was one 
grand contention for the truth under the 
fostering influences of love. And while 
he. everywhere, in the face of all opposi- 
tion, proclaimed the Truth, he does not 
forget to enthrone the Love. She to him 
was the queen of truth. To her he gives 
the imperial palm in that immortal ode 
which he sings to her memory in the first 
Corinthian letter. See him while he 
chants her supremacy. Hear him while he 
speaks her immortal grandeur: •• Though 
I speak with the tongues of men and of 
angels, but have not love, I am become as 
sounding brass and tinkling cymbal." 

Here we have the great Apostle's work- 
ing secret — truth working by love. 

It is this that has supplied all the he- 
roes of the past with their forces of vic- 
tory. 

It was this enabled Athanasius to stand 



up and say if all men forsake me, then 
'•'Athanasius contra miindum." 

It was this enabled Savonarola to give 
the first shocks of the reformation on the 
banks of the Arno. 

It was this enabled the Augustine monk 
of Erfurt to convulse all Europe with the 
cries of new life. 

It was this sent Wesley, with his " heart 
strangely warmed/" up and down the Isles 
of Briton with the rich evangel that has 
made England the pride and glory of the 
earth. 

It was this truth and love that inspired 
Francis Asbury to travel through these 
Eastern States, from Elaine to Georgia, 
laying deep in the hearts of men the foun- 
dations of this great republic. 

It was this that thrilled the soul of 
William McKendree as he crossed and 
recrossed the Blue Ridge and Alleghany 
Mountains, setting the hearts of men and 
women ablaze with holy fire. 

It was this that throbbed in the con- 
centrated soul of Benjamin Abbot as 
amid the Jersey pines he preached the 
Gospel with such power that men and 
women fell as if shot dead before him. 

It was this that glowed in the heart of 
Freeborn Garrettson as he set the banks 
of the Hudson ablaze with a holier light 
than ever shone on land or sea. 

It was this that swelled the bosom of 
Jesse Lee as he swayed New England 
throngs under the old oak on Boston Com- 
mon with as mighty throb as ever thrilled 
the common people under George Whit- 
field or Jonathan Edwards. 

It was this that shone in the soul of 
Matthew Simpson, that Bhoderick Dim 
of Methodism. 



PAUL FINISHING HIS COURSE. 



170c 



" Whose blast upon his bugle horn 
Was worth ten thousand men," 

as in more recent times he swept the 
souls of multitudes with seraphic strains 
of the Great Salvation. 

And it is this same power of truth and 
love that may impel every agency of the 
Church, modern and millitant. Where- 
ever this is, this lilting and impelling force, 
there is success. Let it, therefore, impel 
the preacher in the pulpit and the people 
in the pew. 

Let it be the propulsive force of the offi- 
cial boards and of the teachers of our Sun- 
day schools. 

Let it push to the front the members of 
our Epworth Leagues and Christian En- 
deavor. 

Let it inspire the Ladies' Aid and the 
several committees of the churches. 

Let it inflame the whole fabric of Zion, 
from highest bishop to humblest member, 
till all are on the march, with the one 
question : " Lord, what will Thou have me 
to do?" 

Let it blaze in the hearts, and shine in 
the thoughts, and glow in the faces of the 
whole millitant host, at home and abroad, 
and the child is born who will see this 
Grand Republic free — free from the carp- 
ing criticisms of captious unprogressive- 
ness ; free from hollow shams of barren 
formalities ; free from the cruel curse of 
the legitimized saloon; free from the insid- 
ious blight of the doom-dealing houses of 
death ; free from degrading and destruct- 
ive disbelief, misbelief and unbelief; free 
from the beglooming night shades of de- 
moralizing idolatry and distracting infi- 
delity, and full of that sublime ardor 



and energy; full of that heavenly truth 
and everlasting love, that held the high 
Apostle to the Gentiles in his glorious 
course. 

Let such a sea of truth and love as this 
come upon the whole Church, and the 
child is born who will behold America 
and England march together under the 
united folds of the Lion and the Eagle, 
bearing in their hands not the flashing 
falchion, but the blessed Gospel into 
every land beneath the sun. And the 
Japanese will fling away their Kojiki, 
and the Chinese will throw away their 
Li-King, Shu-King and Shi-King. And 
the Hindoos will give to the winds their 
Vedas, Eamayana, Bagavadgita and 
Upanashads. And the Buddhists will 
consign to the flames their Lalita Yistara 
and Khuddaka Patha, and Upasampada 
and Dhammapada. And the Moham- 
medans will give to oblivion the gro- 
tesque dreamings of the Man of Mecca, 
and to the entombing sands of the 
desert the leaves of the Koran. And the 
Eomanists will abandon their baptized 
paganism, and their purgatory, and their 
woman and wafer worship, and so the 
wasting, weakening idolatries of men 
shall be driven from the earth by the 
expulsive power of truth and love, and 
then, with Paul, shall united, redeemed 
humanity gather round their king and 
sing the wide world o'er : 

" Who shall separate us from the love 
of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or 
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or 
peril, or sword ? ^Nay, in all these things 
we are more than conquerors through 
Him that loved us. For I am persuaded 



170d 



PAUL FINISHING BIS COURSE. 



that neither death nor life, nor angels, 
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." 



" He shows his prints of love, 
They kindle to a flame. 
And sound through all the worlds above 
The slaughtered Lamb." 

May God add his blessing to His truth. 
Amen. 



Note. — In these three discourses the preacher 
has used liberally the facts and phrases contained 
in Canon Farrar's remarkable life of St. Paul. 
He has done so because the facts were convenient 
and the phrases could not by him be improved, 
and he advises his readers to possess the Canon's 



magnificent volumes ; at the same time he thinks 
the cream of the great work is contained in these 
three discourses, and he who reads them studi- 
ously will not be lacking in a comprehensive and 
inspiring conception of the life and labors of the 
Great Apostle. The Author. 



Sacred Singing* 



And they sang by course (one to another), in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord, 
saying: " Because He is good, for His mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people 
shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord. — Ezra III : 11. 



CYRUS, the broad-minded Conqueror, 
authorized the captive Israelites to 
return to Jerusalem and re-build 
the Temple of the Lord. Forty-two 
thousand brave volunteers marched out 
over the mountains into Judea to com- 
mence that work. 

They took with them their accumulated 
treasures and were eager to spend and be 
spent in such noble employ. They gath- 
ered themselves together " as one man " 
to Jerusalem and laid the foundation of 
the new Temple. 

When it was laid they arranged them- 
selves into volunteer and vested choirs 
and sang together by course praises to 
Jehovah for all his goodness to them and 
their fathers, and such was the enthusiasm 
that " all the people shouted with a great 
shout when they praised the Lord." 

This event was the brightest blossom in 
this beautiful scene of Temple building. 
As we to-day inaugurate a circle of sacred 
song like a wreath round the centre of this 
congregation, it is proper that we should 
gather inspiration from such a sacred era 
as this of Ezra. At such a time it is pro- 
per you should have portrayed to you 
something of the history, philosophy and 
power of sacred song. 

I. Let us look at its history. Song was 
born with creation. Then " the morning 
stars sang together and all the sons of 
God shouted for joy." Man is a singing 
creature. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob may have sung their 



songs, although their singing is unrecorded. 
Moses, with the tyranny of Egypt behind 
and the freedom of Arabia before, and 
Pharaoh and his army swallowed in the 
sea, sang unto the Lord who had tri- 
umphed gloriously in the rescue of Israel 
from Egyptian slavery. Deborah, the 
chieftainess, who, under a heroic spell, 
called out Israel, under Barak, against 
Siseria, after the victory, began her war 
ode with, " I even I will sing unto the 
Lord." . But no one was so songful as 
David, the royal bard. He was usually in 
a praiseful mood. He sang many praises 
himself. Lie called upon others to follow 
his high example. His Psalms still cry to 
the sons of men. " Sing praises to God ; 
sing praises unto our King ; sing praises, 
for God is the King of all the earth ; sing 
praises with understanding." 

Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets, joins 
David the King, and cries, " Awake and 
sing ye that dwell in the dust." " The 
tongue of the dumb shall sing," "Sing unto 
the Lord a new song, and let the inhabit- 
ants of the rock sing," " Sing, O heavens, 
and be joyful, O earth, and break forth 
into singing, O mountains, for the Lord 
hath comforted His people and will have 
compassion upon His afflicted." 

Before Jesus went forth to Gethsemane 
and Calvary He sang an hymn with His 
disciples. 

Paul and Silas, when rocked in the 
cradle of the earthquake in Phillipian dun- 
geon sang so heartily that the other pris- 



172 



SACRED SINGING. 



oners heard them. The victors standing 
on the sea of glass mingled with fire sing 
the song of Moses, the servant of God, 
and the song of the Lamb, saying, " Great 
and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord 
God, the Almighty ; righteous and true 
are Thy ways, Thou King of Ages." 

As the truths and triumphs of the man 
of Galilee prevail, sacred songs prevail. 
The Apostles, the Apostolic and Church 
Fathers sang out their sacred sonnets with 
a glee and glory unknown to Homeric 
bards or idyllic singers. The heathen 
minstrels were eclipsed by the holy melod- 
ists who had caught their strains from 
communing with the King who built the 
skies to shine upon the sons of men. 

Each great revival and reform added 
new singers and new songs throughout 
the struggling ages. Emerging from each 
eclipse come forth some stalwart singers 
who had seen the dawn of a holier and a 
happier day. 

The singers of the Lutheran reformation 
caught stanzas of the grand refrain and 
sang with overflowing souls the sym- 
phonies of salvation. 

The Wesleyan and Whitefieldian reviv- 
als were accompanied and confirmed with 
the sweetest songs that yet had charmed 
the souls of men. The sacred fires were 
borne on the wings of praise from isle to 
isle, and from land to land, till millions 
heard and caught the flying joy. 

And never did sun shine on such a day 
as this in which we sing. We hear count- 
less voices sing in every continent 
and clime, the fame and glory of our King. 
No being has ever touched the earth that 
has evoked such soulful jubilations as He 
whose praise we sing. 

The weird, funereal wails that rise in 



heathen lands from the melancholy souls 
of saddened, hopeless man, form a gloomy 
background to the pleasing j)icture i n this 
Temple to-day. The plaintive wails of 
every heathen heart, by contrast, make 
more majestic and sublime the songs we 
sing. In fact there is no real song in any 
soul unvisited by the Christ who has 
brought life and immortality to light. The 
heathen song is a plaintive, a dreary, des- 
pairing dirge that fills the ear with a sense 
of deep despair. While in Mohammedan, 
Buddhistic, Brahminic and Confucian 
lands my soul sank into sorrow while 
hearing the heathen essay to sing. Their 
crooning seemed but outlet to gloomy 
grief instead of an expression of inward 
joy, and the harsh dissonances of their 
voice were but conveyances of the deep 
distresses of their heart. Flow grateful 
and helpful then should we be ? Grateful 
that God has given us joyful news. Help- 
ful in sending that same news into every 
sin-sick soul beneath the sun. 

II. Now, look at the philosophy of 
song. It is natural to express in some 
way the forces that we feel. 

If you feel sad, that is shown by silence 
or by tears. If you are under the power 
of anger, that is shown by flush and frown, 
and perhaps, also, by words and deeds. If 
you are stirred by good news and grand 
forces, that is shown by smiles, speech and 
song. Sacred song is the focused expres- 
sion of the best feelings you can feel. 
There are many kinds of song. There are 
the songs that pour out the plaintive sad- 
ness of the soul. These we call pathetic. 

There are the songs that vent the fusion 
of natural thought and passion. These 
we call sentimental. There are songs that 
portray wit and humor. These we name 



SACRED SINGING. 



173 



comic. There are songs that describe 
placid content in the rural sphere. These 
we call idyllic. There are songs that por- 
tray the grandeurs of war, the sublimity 
of carnage, the exploits of heroes. These 
we call epic. 

But there are other songs of wider range 
and higher sweep. There are other songs 
that speak of the grandeur of the nature of 
man. Songs that sing the marvelous possi- 
bilities and privileges of mankind. That 
chant the glory of the Creator, the love of the 
Redeemer, the majesty of the Preserver, 
the sweetness of the Comforter, the immor- 
tal beauty of truth, virtue, holiness and 
Heaven. There are songs that lead us 
into the presence of the Eternal ; that 
invest Jehovah with attributes of awe, 
reverence and love ; that enrobe the Christ 
in vestments incarnate, speaking, working, 
suffering, dying, rising, reigning. 

There are songs that sing of our lost 
condition by sin ; of our saved condition 
by grace. Songs that warn, invite and 
counsel. Songs that lead us to penitence 
and to pardon. Songs that seal us in 
covenant and consecration. Songs that 
sanctify and save. Songs that sustain in 
trial, temptation and suffering. Songs 
that sweep us up into wrapt communion 
with our Father and our God, and give us 
the fortitude of celestial heroes ; the wis- 
dom of devout philosophers ; the self-sacri- 
lice of noblest martyrs, and jubilations 
of heavenly victors. Songs that soothe 
and sweeten, refine, cheer, inspire and 
strengthen till we feel within us the assur- 
ance and power of sons of God, heirs of 
God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. 
These we call sacred. These are the very 
best and highest songs. You can usually 
tell the character of the person by the 



character of the songs the person sings. 
The poor heathen sings his doleful dirge 
on the minor key because he has nothing 
better to sing. The profane person sings 
his ribaldry because he is profane. The 
jocund person sings his witty songs because 
he likes the humorist and the wit. The 
lover sings his sentimental songs because he 
is in love, has been, or would like to be. The 
patriot sings his patriotic songs because he 
loves his country. The warrior sings his 
war songs because he is a fighter. But 
the Christian sings his Christian songs 
because he loves his Saviour. 
It was Longfellow who said : 

" Such songs have power to quiet 

The restless pulse of care ; 
And come like the benediction 

That follows after prayer." 

It was Hopkins who said : 

"Full oft the longing soul goes out 
On wings of song, it's good to find; 

And flying far o'er flood and doubt, 
Its ark of bondage leaves behind." 

It was Schiller who said : 

" Song forbids victorious deeds to die." 

III. In the light of the history and 
philosophy of song in general, let us look 
at the power of sacred song in the great 
work we have on hand in particular. Sa- 
cred song is the handmaid of sacred speech. 
She is a sweet and suitable accompani- 
ment. 

Divine orators 

* 1 Pour the full tide of eloquence along 
Serenely pure and yet divinely strong." 

Divine singers open up and prepare the 
the orator's way. They illustrate and 
confirm the orator's utterances. In this 
Temple this has been eminently so. The 
aim has been to have the song and the 



174 



SACRED SINGING. 



sermon sow the same seed, cultivate the 
same convictions, enforce the same high 
privileges, mould the same strong charac- 
ters, and point to the same glorious des- 
tiny during the same service. This unity 
of purpose in the sermon and the song 
produced beautiful and permanent effects. 
When we preach on the supremacy of 
Christ and you sing 

' ' Jesus the name high over all 

In hell, or earth, or sky, 
Angels and men before it fall, 

And devils fear and fly," 

the effect is electric. A vast amount of 
good preaching and good singing are lost 
because of the haphazard fashion in which 
they are brought into the same service. 
The effect of the sermon is neutralized by 
the singing, or the influence of the singing 
is neutralized by the sermon. And the 
results are worthless. Here we will tol- 
erate no such neutralizing antagonisms. 
Our motive is to have majesty of united 
movement in song and sermon. Anthems 
are of no service unless they are in har- 
mony with the sermon. Hymns are of 
little value unless they illustrate and 
enforce the preacher's theme. Some chor- 
isters, singers and preachers are too lazy 
and stupid to harmonize the divine ser- 
vices. The result is the people are neither 
harmonized nor evangelized. Here you 
are willing to work for harmonization, for 
uniqueness of design, for unity of product. 

There is one reason why we have organ- 
ized this new vested processional choir. 
There is life, motion, forward movement 
in these services, and that uniformed and 
active choir represents the life and pro- 
gress of them. But this choir is yet 
young. It is just going into training. And 
so we want the classic choir and the 



whole congregation to encourage and sus- 
tain it. This Temple is so constructed as 
to enable us to produce the most beautiful 
effects by such a choir. It enables us to 
run a circle of loving song round the 
heart of the whole congregation. You 
can see for yourselves the minute, yet 
powerful, prettiness of the whole design. 
And I bespeak for our new- choir the sym- 
pathy and co-operation of the whole con- 
gregation. After this digression, let us . 
now consider the power of such sacred 
song, so beautifully arranged. 

I. It attracts the attention of people. 
But many silly fools say ah ! that is just 
what I don't want to do. I am afraid of 
drawing attention. I want to be little and 
unknown. Well, some of you have suc- 
ceeded remarkably well in reaching your 
ambition. But the better class of you — 
those of you who amount to something 
those of you who are clear-headed and 
kind-hearted know that you never can 
save people till you attract their attention. 
And there is possibly nothing will, for a 
long time, draw the attention of people 
like good and varied music, properly 
applied. You have seen a lad with a good 
voice standing on the street singing some 
simple ditty, and you have seen men, 
women and children gather round that lad 
till he had nothing more to sing. 

The Salvation Army uses the brass 
band and bass drum to attract attention, 
but for sustained and natural efficiency 
there is no instrument like the soothing 
vibrations of a human voice singing from 
a sympathetic mind of light and a palpi- 
tating heart of love. 

There are some people, however, so very 
finical, and foolish, and badly born and bred 
that anything that causes a ripple of 



SAC BED SINGING. 



175 



excitement, or anything out of the ruts in 
which they have been running, excites 
their severe indignation. Well, what 
about their indignation ? What does it 
amount to ? Just as much as they amount 
to, and that is nothing. I wonder if such 
people object to getting the attention of a 
man who is standing unconsciously on the 
railroad track with the limited express fly- 
ing on him at the rate of a mile a minute. 
Oh, no, you wouldn't object to that. Well, 
then, in the name of humanity, how can 
you object to us getting the attention of 
blind and deaf men standing unconsciously 
on the track of God Almighty's great 
governmental train flying on them with 
all the velocity of time and momentum 
of eternity. You have seen the fire engines 
rush over the pavements, ringing like fury 
to warn people out of their path. We are 
flying on to the great conflagration of the 
universe in the chariots of the eternal, and 
shall not we ring up men to fly from the 
thundering artillery of justice to the arms 
of a pitying God? Oh, my hearers, what 
multitudes are clamoring for the attention 
of poor, deluded people that they may 
delude and damn them more and more. 
How eager and earnest the saloonists are 
to gain their attention. See the well-kept, 
well-lit, elegantly ornamented bar-rooms 
that are calling attention to the red floods 
of damnation. See how the theatrical 
managers equip and adorn the theatres, 
and advertise in the newspapers and on 
the street bulletins, and in the shop and 
saloon windows. They spend millions of 
money to gain attention to what pollutes, 
and dissipates, and dooms forever. And 
yet these critical Christians have no denun- 
ciation for this outrage. But whenever a 
church puts on more steam, and shows as 



much energy and eagerness to save men 
as saloons and theatres do to damn them, 
That Church is called sensational and sacri- 
legious, seeking only the puny mead of 
human applause and praise. With such 
silltness is it any wonder the world is posting 
to damnation ? The truth is, a man ought 
to show earnestness in regard to anything 
in proportion to the importance of that 
thing. How much more earnestly, then, 
should you plan, and pray, and work to 
get human attention to the things of eter- 
nity since the eternal realities are infinitely 
more important than temporary appear- 
ances. There are a good many professing 
Christians in these times that need baptiz- 
ing by the Holy Spirit; but there are a 
good many more that need bleeding by 
the sword of the Spirit. If Sam Jones 
were here he would say they need bleed- 
ing at the top of the noggin and frog 
of the heel. I am glad to notice that the 
number of such people is gradually 
decreasing in this sanctuary, and that to a 
man we work together for the real wel- 
fare of the people. This is my crown of 
rejoicing. Keep on, my brothers and sis- 
ters, for the light begins to shine. But 
the sacred song has not only the power to 
attract mankind to the Temple of the 
Lord, but also the power to attach them 
to the Lord of the Temple. This attach- 
ment is of vital value. It is only the 
branch that is united to the vine, that bears 
the grapes. It is only the wire that is 
united to the motor that conveys the 
electric current and produces electric 
light. And it is only the soul that is 
attached tenderly and truly to the Saviour 
that can save itself and save others. 

How many souls have we seen in this 
Temple become attached by living, link- 
ing faith to Jesus, as we have sung 

' ' Just as I am without one plea 
But that Thy blood was shed for me, 

And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come. 

Just as I am, Thy love unknown 
Has broken every barrier down ; 



176 



8 A OB ED SINGIXG. 



Now to be Thine, yea. Thine alone, 
Lamb of God, I come. 

Just as I am, and waiting not 
To rid my soul of one dark blot, 

To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot 
O Lamb of God, I come. 

Just as I am, Thou dost receive, 

Dost welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, 

Because Thy promise I believe, 
O Lamb of God, I come." 

You have seen them rise from their 
knees in rejoicing groups again and again 
singing " Jesus Saves." 

You have seen them go forth from this 
place saying, " Lord, what wilt Thou have 
me to do ?" And many are now among 
you. Indeed, many of you whom I now 
address have never gone back, but are 
keeping straight on singing. — 

" I'll never go back into the world, No ! 
No! ! Not I! ! !" 

I have often heard you say, " there is 
nothing to go back to, and everything to 
go forward for." And you never said a 
truer sentence. There is, indeed, nothing 
to go back to but dishonor, and shame, and 
sin, and death. There is everything 
to go forward to, glory, honor, immortal- 
ity, and eternal riches in everlasting life. 
You have been attracted and attached. O 
glorious attraction, O 'glorious attachment! 
An attraction that draws you from all evil, 
an attachment that unites you with all 
good. And now, beloved, we are pre- 
pared to attract and attach others. This 
is what we are here for. During the few 
days or years that remain to us before we 
go home, our main business is to save 
others as others have saved us. There is 
not one of you who would part with your 
Jesus for a thousand worlds. You know 
the unutterable value of Jesus in your 
heart. You have felt how he has sent 
the Comforter, and it delights me to hear 
you sing, " The Comforter Has Come." 
Thank God, He has come to stay. He 
will be with you in every change, in every 
trouble, in every temptation, and give you 
every triumph. There is nothing delights 
my very soul to its deepest core like see- 



ing you, my children, grow T in grace. Gid- 
eon, the Hebrew hero, had seventy sons, 
but I am quite sure, however, the old man 
may have been delighted by the seventy 
stalwarts, he did not delight in them 
nearly so mach as I delight in you. Nor 
had he such reason to rejoice. His sons 
were ingloriously slain by Ahimelech, 
their brother, but all the powers of earth 
and hell cannot slay one of you so long as 
you are faithful to your Father and your 
God. " Who shall separate you from the 
love of Christ ?" " What shall harm you 
if you are followers of that which is 
good ?" There's the challenge, and in 
this whole universe from depth, nor 
heighth, nor length, nor breadth comes 
there one to answer it. You are victors 
by blood and fire, and none can vanquish 
you. 

This leads me to say that sacred song 
not only attracts and attaches, but also 
inspires. You have seen soldiers inspired 
by the national airs. Yon have seen Ger- 
mans inspired by "The Watch on the 
Ehine," and Frenchmen inspired by 
" La Marsellaise," and Britons by " Rule 
Britannia," and Americans by " The Star 
Spangled Banner." This was patriotic 
inspiration. And as there is power in 
national song to inspire national ardour, 
so there is power in spiritual song 
to inspire spiritual zeal — zeal that 
will move and work, and suffer, and 
fight till victory comes. There is a zeal 
that amounts to little. There is a zeal 
for sectarianism, for self- preferment, for 
old, worn-out methods. A zeal for social- 
istic enjoyment; a zeal for good times, so- 
called ; a zeal for taking on and blowing 
off steam. But you, who have been under 
my teachings for the last few years, know 
better than to waste your precious time and 
precious lives and opportunities in any such 
frivolities. You know your business is to 
do something worth doing — to go some- 
where worth going, to accomplish some- 
thing for immortal lives. If you should 
see an electric car flying up and down 
Columbus Avenue every day, week after 



SAVE ED SINGING. 



177 



week, that never stopped to take on pas- 
sengers, you would say I wonder what 
object the Company has in running that 
empty car. You would say that car is 
good for nothing but show. But suppose 
one da}' you went out on the Avenue, and 

■ you saw all the cars flying up and down and 
not one of them stopping at the white paint- 
ed poles for passengers, you would say the 
management of the Company has gone 
mad. You would enquire whether Presi- 
dent Little had not become insane. And 
yet there are plenty of so-called Christians 
running to and fro to Church that never 
think of taking a passenger with them. 

- These are empty cars that ought to be 
docked in the round-house till they learn 
better. I have known Christians, so- 
called, who complained because of the 
crowds that come to this Temple. When 
they came they could not get in, and they 
felt very badly about it. Bless you, my 
dear, you ought to be on your knees giving 
thanks to God that at length the people 
have discovered that their true interest lies 
in the Gospel of Christ. Your only 
anxiety ought to be about getting a big 
load of passengers aboard your spiritual 
chariot to conduct to Heaven. Conductors 
on the street cars take pride in the large 
number of passengers they carry. And shall 
not you, as a Christian conductor, 
glory in the large number of passengers 
you can draw toward Heaven. You can 
always tell a sham and shoddy Christnin 
by this test. If a Christain rejoices in 
seeing the people flock in multitudes to 
hear the Gospel that shows he is real. 
But if he sulks and pouts, and gossips, and 
criticises, and whines about it that shows 
he is an infernal fraud. Jesus Christ came 
to save the people and every one who 
loves him rejoices with him when the 
people come for salvation. The proper 
spirit of song will enable such an one to 
rejoice. The heroic hymns of the Church 
have in them the swing and inspiration of 
victory. When properly sung by loving 
hearts and honest souls they have a pro- 
pelling power. There are two great forces 



in nature on which all other forces depend. 
These forces guide the spheres. One is 
called centripetal, the other centrifugal. 
The centripetal draws the sphere toward 
the centre. The centrifugal drives from 
the centre. 

In other words it looks as though in the 
management of the globes there were one 
great invisible hand pushing the minor 
bodies towards the major, and another 
invisible hand pushing them from the 
major. The union of the two forces act- 
ing at the same time, on the same globe 
makes it roll round on its axis and for- 
ward in its orbit. This has the beautiful 
and beneficient effect of producing day 
and night, and also the seasons. And as a 
result we have life, and beauty, and joy 
over all the earth. 

There are 'two correspondingly great 
forces in the human realm. The one is 
material and has a tendency to push man 
away from Jehovah the Center, the other 
is spiritual and has a tendency to draw 
man to that center, now then the will 
power of man comes into play at this point. 
If man choose to obey only the material 
power that is pushing him, he flies off into 
all kinds of mysterious regions of dread 
and is lost. If he choose to obey the spirit- 
ual power that is pushing him without 
reference to the laws o£ nature he drifts 
off into fanaticism and insanity and is lost. 
But if he choose to obey God and God 
only who is operating upon him with the 
right hand of His righteousness and the left 
hand of His care, he rolls sublimely on in 
the orb of duty, growing brighter and better 
as he rolls, till finally he is fitted for the 
Companionship of Jehovah Himself in 
Heaven. The part that sacred music plays 
in this upward, onward tendency is impor- 
tant. It has an inspiring propelling power. 
It rouses the courage, the love, the loyalty, 
the grandeur there is in man. It stirs him 
like a bugle call to battle. When the 
British troops were marching on beleaguered 
Lucknow. When the Sepoys stood in such 
menacing swarms as dismayed the British 
troops, when ordered forward to the 



178 



SACRED SINGING. 



charge. Sir Colin Campbell ordered the 
Highlanders to play their Scottish airs, 
and then the English to respond in British 
song. The shrill sweet strong music ran 
through the regiments like electric joy. 
The brave Sir Henry Havelock heard the 
tones from the invested residency, the 
Sepoys fell back before the on -rolling sea 
of valor, and Lucknow was taken and 
India became the brightest gem in Vic- 
toria's crown. A few hours before the 
British camp was an antiphonal cathedral 
of inspiring song. Briton singing to Scot, 
Scot singing to Briton. And both together 
formed a flood of melodious valor that, 
won the lovely empire of the East. So 
here in our Temple, henceforth, it will 
be choir responding to choir. It will be song 
replicating to song till the hearts of all the 
people are thrilled with such volumes of 
holy valor as shall roll over Boston and 
rescue the citadel of truth and rout the 
Sepoys of Satan and place upon Messiah's 
diadem this historic jewel of the Common- 
monwealth. 

Let us then sing on this heavenly music. 
Let us sing one to another as they did 
under Ezra at Jerusalem. Let us sing one 
to another as they did in the old Taber- 
nacle and Temple under Aaron and Asaph. 
Let us sing one to another as did the val- 
iant hosts of the Church throughout 
heroic ages. 

Let us sing on till we shall feel the 
abounding glory from the Heaven's com- 
ing in mighty billows upon our souls. 

Let us sing on till all our cares depart 
and all our fears are gone, and all our 
souls are overflowing with love and peace 
and joy. 

Let us sing this celestial music till we 
shall love to rush upon the foe and think 
it a privilege to fall as Gustavus Adolphus 
fell in early prime fighting for the freedom 
of God's people. 

Let us sing this sweet celestial 
music till all that is best within us shall 



come up for 'the truth's sake, and for hu- 
manity's sake love to suffer and to die. 

This is the heroic point to which the 
Heavenly music can sweep us. This is the 
heroic mount we need to attain before we 
can come up to the passion of Him who 
leads us on. The sweetest feeling that ever 
came over that mother's heart is the feel- 
ing that she is giving her life to nourish 
her darling boy. And the sweetest feel- 
ing that can occupy a human soul is the 
feeling that it is giving its life to nourish 
and cherish the famishing hosts of men. 
How happy, how hopeful, how glad we 
are that we are in this service! This 
sweetest, self sacrificing service that places 
our chief delight in doing good ! 

Notice in closing that the text says 
" all the people shouted with a great shout 
when they praised the Lord." 

Why did they so shout? It was because 
they saw how much Pie was to them. It was 
because they saw how good, and great, 
and true 5 and kind He was to them. It 
was because they felt how good he would 
be to them and theirs in the times to come. 

It was because their song roused them 
to see and feel that they were the most 
favored people on all, this earth, because 
God was with them in his love, power, 
riches, honor and glory. 

And what was true of them is true of 
you. When you all sing as you can the 
praises of your God, he will emerge from 
the clouds that are thick about Him, He 
will show Himself in His power and love 
and glory as your Father and Friend un- 
altering and unfailing. Then your soul 
catching fire at the sight will be all ablaze 
and you too like the good people of Ezra's 
day will shout with a great shout. 

Sing on then by course one to another in 
praising and giving thanks unto the Lord 
saying, because He is good for his mercy 
endureth forever toward Israel." 

Amen. 



Power* 

"Ye shall receive Power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon yon." — Acts 1:8. 



YOU go into a great departmental 
store. You ask for the main mem- 
ber of the firm. You find him away 
up in a secluded office of his own. 
He is the busiest and brainiest man in the 
establishment. He works silently, surely, 
diligently. Why? To make money? 
No ! To make business ? No ! To make 
fame ? No ! It is to gain power. You 
go into the great university. You see a 
young man with intense features. You 
watch him closely. He reads book after 
book. He analyzes author after author. 
He writes folio upon folio. He scents 
with the nose of a spaniel. He looks with the 
eye of an eagle. He listens with the. ear 
of an Indian. He is on the quest for some- 
thing you do not see. His whole mind, 
heart and body are on the strain of a per- 
sistent tension. Pie sits up late. He rises 
early. He works hard. What is he after ? 
He is after knowledge. No ; he is after 
power. Here is a young woman. The 
native bloom of her rosy cheek has faded. 
She has lost the shy coyness of the bloom- 
ing maid. Her lissom form is strung on 
resolution. Her step is firm; her eye 
bright and keen, her features fine and 
firm. Her life is dominated by a living 
purpose that propels her forward. She 
means to master philosophy, music, litera- 
ture, and art. She has set a large, difficult 
program before herself. Every day finds 
her shutting out the dissipating pleasures, 
and drinking in the edifying energies. 
Why does she deny herself, and toil in 
endless application ? You say, like another 
Aspasia, she is pursuing philosophy, 



music, literature, and art. No ! These 
are but the means. She is pursuing 
power. And if you go into the various 
avocations of mankind ; if you visit the 
factories, shops, stores, banks, farms, 
studios, colleges, and all other places 
where men and women devote themselves 
diligently to any laborious toil, and if you 
have skill and patience to analyze the 
cause of all this world-wide work of the 
moving millions, you will discover that the 
mainspring motive — the objective end — of 
all this everlasting labor is the power that 
it is supposed to bring to the toiler. The 
farmer plants and cultivates his crops be- 
cause of the power they bring to him. The 
manufacturer fabricates his goods because 
of the power he hopes to gain from them. 
The merchant buys and sells his goods 
because of the power that buying 
and selling bring him. Every man who 
makes money in the countless ways in 
which money is obtained does it because 
of the power the money brings to him. 

Thus, then, we go down to foundation 
fact and find man is in the last analysis a 
power seeker. He wants power. He 
needs power. He works for power. He 
loves and appreciates power. Man is so 
made that he can attach himself to various 
kinds of power. You see a man driving 
along the avenue behind a handsome span. 
He has horse power. You look at the 
engineer, with lever in hand, sweeping 
toward a distant city. He has steam 
power. You look at the motor-man 
on an electric car. He has electric 
power. You gaze upon the intellectual 



184 



POWER. 



genius roaming through fields of space, or 
threading his way through scientific facts. 
He has intellectual power. Each of these 
is powerful, according to the kind of power 
with which he is connected. The most 
powerful man is he who has the best and 
greatest power. But most people connect 
themselves with a small measure of power. 
Vast masses are content with mere influ- 
ence, instead of power. Some seek noth- 
ing more than the influence of money ; 
others the influence of fame ; others the 
influence of social station ; others the influ- 
ence of education, and others the influence 
of Church relation. The Saducees, and 
Scribes, and Pharisees of old time sought 
this influence. The pretenders and 
time-servers, and place-hunters, and 
holders of the new time hold this 
influence. A sincere study of society 
will convince an honest mind that this is 
what many seek in all the stations of life. 
I will not do this, nor say that, because it 
will spoil my influence. I will do this, and 
I will do that, because it will promote my 
influence. And so it comes to pass that 
influence is coveted, and power is crucified. 
Jesus Christ had little influence. He did not 
seek it. He would not have it. He knew 
it was like a vapor that passed away. But 
he had power. He was supremely attached 
to and united with supreme power. He 
knew " power belongeth unto God." He 
was constantly connected with that power. 
Men might, and did destroy his influence. 
But men and devils could not destroy his 
powei'. He was moved by this power in 
all his emotions, thoughts, words and 
doings. His power was vital. It would 
not let Him, His words, or His doings die. 
Time justifies the high estimate he placed 
on power. The lives of those who de- 



spised Him shrivelled up and passed away 
with the generation they were buried. The 
life of Jesus grows more vitalizing as time 
goes on. The words and doings of His 
enemies are now only remembered because 
associated with His name. The deeds and 
sayings of Jesus, like seed sown in spring, 
bring forth an ever-cumulative harvest. 
There are many minor trains of influence 
sweeping through the world on which the 
millions ride. There is only one train of 
Almighty power, in which a few are seated. 
But this train has right of way. It is the 
Grand Royal on the Main Trunk line. It 
is boardable at every station, but stops not 
till it brings up in the round-house of eter- 
nal glory. There are many mimic trains 
tooting through divine territory. But there 
is only one train that takes you through 
to Desired Destination. That train has 
Jesus as engineer, and the Holy Ghost as 
propelling motor. All its passengers are 
people of power. They may have lost 
their influence, but they have gained ever- 
lasting (dunamis) powder. 

A person met me on Columbus Avenue 
the other day and said, " Mr. Brady, how 
is it that with all the newspapers after you, 
and the critics all going for you, you seem 
to have a growing power over the people 
that they cannot resist." The reply was 
easy. When power is genuine, no force 
on earth or hell can keep it from growing. 
Cut it up into a thousand pieces and each 
part becomes a new germ of growth. Let 
hurricanes of opposition howl around it, 
and they but root it more firmly to the 
soil of truth. To me it would be a sad 
calamity to hear all men are speaking well 
of me. And I only want to so live, and 
pray, and preach the everlasting Gospel 
that I shall be counted worthy of more 



POWER. 



1*0 



and more abuse from Satan's hordes, till 
by-and-by, like my own gracious Master, 
I shall die with my work finished, praying, 
" Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do." God knows that is the 
deepest, broadest, all -engaging ambition in 
my heart, and how am I " straightened 
till it is accomplished." It is the high priv- 
ilege and superb duty of man to receive the best 
and greatest power. Your text says, " Ye 
shall receive (dunamis) power when the 
Holy Ghost is come upon you." This 
means force, ability, vitality, vim. It is 
the synonyme of the Latin vis and the 
German kraft, and signifies vital energy 
and vigor. It is pleasant to feel you live 
in the larger, loveliest, lasting life. It is 
delightful to feel within you the sweep 
and rush of an undecayable and ever- 
increasing strength and beauty ; a poten- 
tiality that nothing can harm ; a potency 
that nothing can control ; a puissance that 
no foe can vanquish ; an ascendency that 
no change can supersede ; a cogency, a 
validity, an energy, that shall ever receive 
competent supplies from the inexhaustible 
fountain. This is the kind of power prom- 
ised in the text, " Ye shall receive power." 
And this is the kind of power we know by 
experience is in it. It is like a Divine 
faucet connected with a pipe line let down 
from God, and placed in contact with the 
fainting, panting heart of famished man. 
You have only to open the reservoir of 
trust in your soul and let it flow in. This 
is the greatest and best power. You are 
now ready to consider what this power 
will give domination over and possession 
of. 

I. Over what will it give you control ? 
It will give you control over yourself. The 
greatest misfortune that overtakes any 



life is the loss of self-control. A young man 
came to see me the other day. He was 
cold, hungry, dissipated and disheartened. 
He was living on the ragged edge. The 
precipice was beneath him, the bottom- 
less abyss was below the precipice. He 
was swaying beside it, liable at any mom- 
ent to fall over the rim and be lost forever. 
I asked how he had come to such wretched- 
ness and danger. He replied, " I have 
lost self-control. I seem to have no will 
power. Temptation comes and I go wil- 
lingly like an ox to the slaughter, under 
convoy of a decoy." He was a conscious 
victim of ever- weakening bondage. He is 
but a sample of millions. There are hun- 
dreds of you here to-night who know that 
you are lashed by the fiery steeds of pas- 
sion within, or lured by the bewitching 
sirens of pleasure without. You are weak 
as Samson among the Phillistines after 
he lost the long locks of his flowing hair. 
Brothers, sisters, what is your remedy? 
Take the pledge ? I do not say so. 
Reform ? I do not so teach. Stop evil 
and do good ? I did not so advise. Give 
up bad company ? I have not so spoken. 
Join good companions ? This is not my 
counsel. My counsel is : Give up that body, 
mind and soul of thine to be filled and con- 
trolled by the living, loving power of Almighty 
God,and that power will, with one great swing, 
siveep you ttp and out of all your weakness 
and si?is, and give you back your lost self- 
control, and give you strength to rise to the 
best there is in all this tmiverse. That is what 
I teach. It is not needful to specify each 
particular sinner's case. It would take a 
long time to do that. There are some 
of you as confirmed old rascals as ever 
lived. You are just about as bad as world, 
flesh and devil can make you. Some of 



186 



POWER. 



you go about cursing and swearing. Others 
of you go about reading Sunday news- 
papers and shattering to atoms the holy 
Sabbath. Others of you are running in 
debt as fast as you can, and are becoming 
petty bandits. Others of you go around 
trying how many fair young girls you can 
lay hold, of that you may glut your pas- 
sions in th eh- irremediable ruin. Others of you 
go about drinking and lying as if your eter- 
nal welfare depended on how vile you 
can make yourselves. I tell you to your 
face you are a bad set, and if you go on 
the flames of "damnation will soon kindle 
upon you, and no water brigade fromBoston 
or anywhere else will be their to put 
them out. 

But that is a needless, as well as a fear- 
ful end. The worst of you need not per- 
ish. There is power enough to save 
everyone of you. That power does not 
lie in yourselves, nor in your neighbor, nor 
in your business, nor in nature, nor in any 
physical or worldly force. That power is 
in the Holy Spirit of God. That Spirit is 
poured out upon you : for it is poured 
"upon all flesh." It is poured upon you 
while you listen to these words. You have 
but to open your heart and let Him in. 
But that is the last thing you are willing 
to do. I was passing along Old Orchard 
beach last summer. I saw a big clam with 
its valves open. I touched it. It closed 
up in an instant. That is the way you 
who are not saved do whenever God 
touches you. If you had not done so, you 
should have been saved long ago. God 
has been touching you by preaching, sing- 
ing, praying, and Providence. He has 
been periodically touching you by afflictions 
and tender mercies, and is constantly 
touching you by His Holy Spirit. You 



say you do not feel it. How can you feel 
it so long as you shut yourselves up in the 
shells of sin, and worldliness, and selfish- 
ness. Open up your mind and heart hon- 
estly and fully toward God, and you 
shan't have done so penitently and intelli- 
gently ten minutes before you will feel the 
" Great Comforter has come." That Com- 
forter, if you are earnest, trusting, loyal, 
and true, will deliver you from every vile 
habit and' every bad companion, and 
every cursed passion and every 
evil spirit. " You shall receive power 
when the Holy Ghost is come upon you." 
The devil is powerful, passion is powerful, 
the world is powerful, habit is powerful. 
The sea and sky are full of power. The 
earth and the stars are charged with 
power. But the Holy Ghost is God, and 
He is the power of power. He can give such 
power to you that, though all other powers 
were against you and He for you, you 
would be "more than Conqueror." But, 
again, this power of the Holy Spirit will 
not only give you power over every enemy, 
but will also give you power with every 
friend. 

This universe is full of friends. It is 
filled with angels of help. There are 
angels of help in the air ; angels of help in 
the earth, angels of help in the mountain, 
lake, landscape, forest and stream. Every 
star is an angel of helpfulness ; every sun- 
beam ; every moon-beam ; every smile of 
friend, and every frown of foe. This uni- 
verse is so cojistructed as to favor the man 
who has in his heart the Holy Ghost as its 
central power. The whole creation is so 
arranged as to immortalize, crown, and 
enthrone the man who keeps in his life its 
Creator and its Preserver. 

Why should not all laws honor and 



POWER. 



187 



favor Him, who has in His life their Author 
and Sustainer, and End? The universe 
does obeisance to the Child of God as ser- 
vants do obeisance to the princes of a king. 
Thus you see the advantage of having the 
best and greatest power as your motor power. 
It is but natural sequence that all, accord- 
ing to God's promise, should :t work 
together " for the good of God's children. 

You have many illustrations of this 
before your eyes. Here is a little man who 
is busy as the day is long. He is a music 
teacher. He goes like an arrow from 
house to house teaching his divine art. His 
twelve to fifteen hours per day are faith- 
fully filled with labor. You come close to 
him. You say to him, " You are a hard- 
working man." " Yes," he says, " of course 
I am. I have my wife and children to 
support." " And that is why you are 
always plodding away ?" " Yes ; that is 
the mainspring that moves me on. It 
makes me fleet of foot. It makes me deft 
of finger. It makes me alert of thought. 
It makes me embrace all fair opportunities 
of making all my efforts converge on the 
well-being of my family." You draw up 
close to the brother and you say in your 
heart, God bless you, my little man. You 
have in you a spark of the heart of your 
Great Father in Heaven illumining your 
way, and strengthening you in it. And 
that faithful, earthly father is but a faint 
type of your Father in Heaven. He is 
the Greatest Worker. He is busy, not 
only twelve or fifteen hours per day. He 
is busy every day, every hour, every min- 
ute, every second, and every sixteenth of a 
second. He is busy working ever thus for 
the sake of His spouse, the Church, and His 
children, its members. Get this broad 
truth into your mind and heart. Let it 



grow there, and then you will see and feel 
that the magnificent palace of this uni- 
verse is planned, and built, and conducted 
by its Creator with the one purpose of 
making you strong in mind, and happy in 
heart, and harmonic in life. 

But if you are to be so blessed, there is 
one condition you must fulfil — you must 
be a partaker of the Creator's thought, 
purpose, plan, and power. You must be 
so much of a partaker of that power that 
it will be supreme within you and over 
you. You must be completely under the 
sweet spell of that power, as a steam engine 
is under the power of steam. It is to 
be the one only dominating propulsive force. 
It is to drive your thoughts, affections, 
eyes, ears, hands,- feet, tongue ; every fibre, 
muscle, bone, sinew of your body ; every 
faculty of your mind, every impulse of 
your heart, every moment of your time, 
every cent of your money, every atom of 
your property, every energy of your influ- 
ence is to be throbbing vibrantly with 
this power. In all kinds of weather, in 
all kinds of company, in all sorts of circum- 
stances, this one Force is to absorb you, 
inspire you, propel you. Thus zeal is to 
eat you up. Thus, one thing you are to do, 
and thus you will be used, and kept only 
for the Master. Thus you will possess the 
best power and the greatest power. That 
will satisfy you. That will instruct, inspire, 
comfort, and encourage you. That will 
make you march in harmony with the 
highest interests of yourself, with the best 
interests of your fellow-men, with the best 
interests of the whole universe of God. 
There is nothing as good as this. This is 
the supreme blessing of all human and 
Divine life. This being so, it becomes you, 
as an intelligent being, responsible for your 



188 



POWER. 



own welfare and the well-being of all 
others whom your life touches, to secure 
this liberating, harmonizing, love-giving 
power. 

II. Every power has its. medium op trans- 
ference. This it is necessary to remember. 
The ear is the medium that transfers the 
power of hearing to the mind. The nose is the 
medium that transfers fragrance. The eye 
is the medium that transfers light. The nerv- 
ous system is the medium that transfers 
physical feeling. The wire is the medium 
that transfers electricity. You cannot have 
the power without the medium. And the 
medium must be the right kind of medium, 
else the power will not respond to the 
applicant. 

You cannot send a telegraph despatch 
along a telephone wire. Nor can you 
transfer propelling power from a motor 
by either telegraphic or telephonic wire. 
You have to have a main motor medium or 
you cannot move your Boston street chariots. 
The reason so many Christians are worth- 
less is that they idly sit at the end of a 
telephonic or telegraphic wire sending up 
and receiving down messages. They become 
cold, carping, critical, and lazy, and good- 
for-nothing. What they need is cable 
wire let down from the Divine Dynamo in 
contact with their hearts. This would 
make them leap to duty like soldiers 
to battle. But that is the last thing some 
people think of as a medium of power. 
Some are seeking jjower through one 
avenue, and some another. Some through 
money ; others through learning, others 
through worship, others through morality, 
others through ceremonies. But there is 
only one way by which the power comes, and 
that is by way of the Lord Jesus Christ. He 
is the medium, " the way." This is demon- 



strated by history and experience. There 
were many people seeking power in Pales- 
tine when Christ was there — Scribes by 
learning ; lawyers by legislation ; Saducees 
by free thought ; Pharisees by scrupulosity 
of worship. They gained influence, and 
missed power. There were a few Galilean 
peasants in company with Jesus. They 
drank in His words spirit life. He became 
the established ideal in their hearts. They 
imaged their lives after His life. They 
formed their course after His words. They 
were obeying His command in an upper 
room in Jerusalem. They were tarrying 
in faith and prayer together. They had 
tarried three, live, seven days. There was 
no sign of power. All was still as a sum- 
mer sea. The ninth day passed, the tenth 
morning came, and down over and into 
them came the Holy Ghost like a rushing, 
mighty wind and filled not only them, but 
the place in which they were sitting. 
Peter's fears fled. Mary's nervous anxiety 
disappeared. John's love flamed, James' 
zeal burned. And Peter, now no longer a 
poor poltroon, wilting under the accusing 
glances of a servant maid, stood forth the 
man of rock and fire. He went down into 
the street. He stood up with the eleven. 
He was charged with power. He began 
to speak. His words were thunderbolts. 
His eyes were globes of light. His tongue 
was toned to powerful pitch. His heart 
heaved like a billowy sea. His mind was 
clear as a crystal ray. His message spread 
before him like an all-entrancing vision. 
He forgot about praetorian Pilate and per- 
secuting priest. He saw His Master only 
in the vestments of eternal power. He 
defended his excited brethren by his side. 
He proclaimed they were possessed by the 
Holy Spirit of which Joel had foretold. He 



POWER. 



189 



tore the felon garb of disgrace from the 
fair fame of His Master. He charged upon 
the astonished throng in the open square. 
He charged them with the crucifixion of 
their own Messianic King. He proclaimed 
God Himself had raised him from the 
regions of the dead. He quoted their own 
prophetic Scriptures to prove his astound- 
ing story. He told them to then- face that 
he and his brethren were witnesses that 
God Himself had raised up Jesus from the 
dead, that the promised Holy Ghost was 
witnessing to the truth of the words he 
uttered ; that, according to David's pro- 
phecy, this same Jesus whom they cruci- 
fied had ascended up on high, and been, by 
the Father, made Lord and Christ. Peter's 
words, winged with fire, penetrated the 
dungeon darkness of their minds. The 
accusing arrows of the truth entered their 
guilty hearts. They sobbed and staggered 
under the red rush of truth delivered in 
the broken dialect of the Galilean fisherman. 
They cried out under the piercing arrows 
of a deep conviction, " Men and brethren, 
what must we do ?" There in the expect- 
ant hush the man who had slain began to 
make alive. He told them to repent 
(change their minds) and accept baptism 
as the badge of discipleship, in the name 
of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, 
and they should also receive the gift of the 
Holy Ghost, for theirs was the promise, 
theirs the Divine call if they would .but 
save themselves from that crooked, that 
perverse generation. And on the spot 
three thousand souls were added to the 
Church. Here, my hearers, you see the 
difference between a man with and with- 
out the power of the Holy Ghost. With- 
out the Holy Ghost, Peter was a poor, pit- 
iable coward, afraid to confess his Master. 



With the Holy Ghost, Peter was a giant, 
standing before an astonished multitude, 
convicting them in the name of that Jesus 
whom they had denied, and lifting them up 
to happiness, hope, and power. Peter, 
without the Holy Ghost, was a poor, lying 
blasphemer. Peter, with the Holy Ghost, 
was a divine dynamo, generating forces of 
eternal life for countless generations of 
immortal souls. Brethren and sisters of 
this Temple, the mere recital of this sacred 
story is sufficient to show where your 
power lies. It does not lie in splendor, 
nor in ceremony, nor in crowds, nor in 
preferences, nor in applause, nor in singing, 
nor in services, but in the Holy Ghost. 
Sunday School teachers, you need the 
Holy Ghost to make you powerful, to draw 
your scholars to the Saviour. Christian 
Endeavorers, you need the Holy Ghost to 
make you powerful in the rescue of men. 
Class leaders, you need the Holy Ghost, 
to make you powerful in building up your 
classes in Christ. Prayer leaders and 
singers, ye need the Holy Ghost to render 
powerful the prayers you offer, and the 
songs you sing. Trustees and stewards, 
you need the Holy Ghost to make you 
wise in planning and strong in executing 
for the welfare of the multitudes through 
the ministrations of this Temple. 

Church members, you need the Holy 
Ghost to make you mighty magnets to 
draw the hungering crowds that come 
here to the sinner-saving Saviour. Exhort - 
ers and preachers, ye need the Holy Ghost 
to illumine your minds with fire, to flood 
your hearts with flame, to tip your tongues 
with power, that those to whom you speak 
may be pricked in their consciences and 
led to cry for mercy while mercy may be 
found. 



190 



POWER. 



Unconverted sinner, you need the Holy 
Ghost to flash conviction through your 
soul and lead you to see your direful dan- 
ger, and from it to fly to your only 
Redeemer. Weak one, wandering one, 
discouraged one, forsaken, broken-hearted 
one, contrite, penitent one, whatever your 
lot, whatever your name, "You shall 
receive the greatest and the best power 
when you receive the Holy Ghost." Oh, 
that you may receive Him while I speak. 
Oh, that you may all imbibe him while we 
pray,— 

Holy Ghost upon us fall 
Till our head and heart and all; 
Guide us strongly by thy might 
Lead us into all thy light. 

We are very weak and sad, 
Make us good and make us glad, 
Make us strong to do thy will 
And with all thy presence fill. 

From all evil set us free 
Thine for ever more to be, 
Thine to tight as well as pray 
Thine to win the glorious day. 

Send us forth upon the foe, 
Fill us as we forward go, 
Till our words shall fall like tire 
And every halting heart inspire. 

Be the motor of our soul 
Moving us by thy control, 
Ne'er to duty say we no 
Moved by Thee, great Dynamo. 

Sacred source of power divine, 
Fill, O till this soul of mine, 
With the riches of Thy grace 
Send me to the human race. 



We have seen the Saviour's side, 
We have seen the Crucified. 
Rising from his grave of gloom 
With Him we would spurn the tomb. 

But we want with Him to die, 
In the grave with Him to lie. 
From the grave with Him to rise 



Come and slay us unto sin, 
Come and dwell with us within. 
Be the sovereign of our heart 
From thee we will ne'er depart. 

Make us mighty in the fight, 
Make us valiant for the right, 
We would conquer though we die, 
O most Mighty ! most High ! 

What care we for life or death 
While supported by Thy breath, 
Only let us reach thy throne 
Bringing trophies we have won . 

Guide us in the glorious war 
Saving souls from near and far 
Scot and Briton, Jew and Greek 
Thy praises ever more to speak. 

O propel us by Thy might ! 
Through the darkness of the night, 
To the battles of the day 
Where Satan stands in grim array. 

Hurl us against his bastions high 
There to conquer and to die. 
Spare us not but speed us forth, 
To show our blessed Saviour's worth. 

It may be soon it may be long- 
But we'll end this war with song, 
If thou wilt but our POWER be 
Holy Ghost, we cleave to Thee. 



The Proxy Cross. 



" And when they led Him away, they laid hold upon one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the 
country, and laid on him the cross to bear it after Jesus." — St. Luke, xxiii, 26. 



THE great tragedy was about to take 
place. No such scene had ever 
transpired. Jerusalem was wild 
with frenzy. "The Man of Gali- 
lee " had almost finished the strange 
drama of His most fascinating life. He 
had completed His miracles, announced 
His commission, laid the foundations of 
His Kingdom in the hearts of His country- 
men, and was now commencing His 
mournful march to Calvary. He had gone 
through Gethsemane dripping in blood, 
through trial by a priest craft pathetic 
within tolerance, through mockery by a pro- 
curator, pitiful with political trickery. And 
now the solemn march along the way of 
tears began. The prepared cross had 
taken the place of the scarlet palu- 
dament, and the weary and exhausted 
man staggered and fell as he essayed to 
bear it. The licensed tigers having tasted 
blood, thirsted to drink the last life-drop. 
Among the excited throng wandered won- 
deringly an honest countryman from far- 
off Cyrene. He may have expressed pity 
for the patient and meek, yet majestic vic- 
tim, struggling with his unequal burden. 
The savage murderers caught and com- 
pelled this man to bear the heavy cross 
for the silent sufferer with whom he may 
have sympathized. And hence the state- 
ment of the text, " They laid hold upon 
one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the 
country, and laid on him the cross to bear 
it after Jesus." This same thing has been 
done by religionists ten thousand times, in 
ten thousand ways, since that sad, sicken- 



ing day. When professors of piety become 
bitter, intolerant, narrow, selfish, and 
ease-loving, they look around for some 
simple countryman to carry the cross. 
When members of the Church grow by back- 
sliding, critical, blind and furious, they want 
somebody else to follow Jesus bearing the 
cross. They prefer to fall back and gos- 
sip, and ogle each newcomer. They pre- 
fer to turn fierce and foolish eyes upon 
each other, and upon the failings and 
faults of mankind. They cease to be 
Christians, and become carpers. They 
cease looking at the victories, and become 
polluted with the vices. They degenerate 
into mere camp sutlers, sheer hangers-on, 
who " crucify the Son of God afresh and 
put Him to an open shame," rather than 
follow Him closely and lovingly either to 
Calvary or to Coronation. These worth- 
less wretches are the repelling curses of 
the Church to-day. They are of no account 
to themselves, nor to anyone else. They 
are decoy ducks of the devil, and he knows 
how to use them for the snaring of multi- 
tudes of souls. Mr. Moody is crying out 
against them. Mr. Jones is crying out 
against them. The Word of God is crying out 
against them. And if the whole universe 
of equity had a tongue, it would cry out 
against them. There are too few of them 
in this Temple to induce this pulpit to lift 
up its voice. Thank God, he is giving us 
good, loyal souls, who love to bear the 
cross after Jesus, and go with Him 
through the Via Dolorosa (the way of 
weeping) to Calvary and to Crucifixion. 



196 



THE PROXY CROSS. 



You can say, " I am crucified with Christ," 
thrice blessed Crucifixion. But there is 
always danger where people are unin- 
structed in great underlying and funda- 
mental principles. The cross in the 
Church is not only a great fact, but a 
great force, a deep-rooted, unalterable, 
ever-working law. It cannot be evaded, 
nor displaced, nor passed by, nor put on 
other shoulders without the " abomination 
of desolation " seizing him who shirks it 
by pressing it on others. This is why 
Jesus attached so much importance to it. 
This is why he said, " He that taketh not 
his cross and folio we th after me is not 
worthy of me." " If any man will come 
after Me, let him deny himself and take up 
his cross and follow Me, for whosoever 
will save his life shall lose it, and whoso- 
ever will lose his life for My sake shall 
find it," and " whosoever doth not bear his 
cross and come after Me cannot be My 
disciple." There was no truth to which 
our Saviour attached more imposing 
importance than this. He speaks of it 
emphatically, unconditionally and fre- 
quently. He practiced it Himself, and 
made its practice the vital condition of 
discipleship. Men might say, and do, and 
give ten thousand things ; but if they did 
not love Christ enough to actually take up 
their several crosses and follow Him, they 
could not enter His school. They could 
not receive His teachings. They could 
not be saved by His doctrines. They 
could not live by His death. They could 
not be learners (disciples) of Him. A 
truth of so great practical and personal 
import as this should be thoroughly 
understood by us. It is to be feared 
many think, and talk about it who do not 
comprehend it, nor personally practice it. 



To aid in comprehending it is the duty of 
the hour. To assist in apprehending it so 
as to be apprehended by it, is the business 
of this service. Pray, as the theme is 
unfolded, that it may triumph over every 
life in this Temple, for if it triumph not in 
and over us, nothing is before us but 
defeat and despair. But if personal cross- 
bearing after Jesus have full sway in us, 
then there is nothing before us but grace 
upon grace to prepare for glory upon 
glory. 

To begin with, remember this personal 
cross-bearing is mirrored in nature. The 
practice of this principle lies at the root of 
all progress. The gardener has his valu- 
able seeds ; the farmer his precious bulbs 
and cereals. He knows that if these 
seedlings are consumed by him, that is the 
last of them. He knows, also, that if they 
are properly planted, they will, after a few 
months, so multiply themselves that he 
will have from fifty to a hundred-fold more 
than he parted with. He, therefore, takes 
up his cross and follows the voice of na- 
ture, and plants the seed, and reaps the 
increase. In moral and spiritual respects, 
we are all just like that. We are given 
certain time, and talent, and means. If we 
spend that time, talent, and money on 
ourselves : that is the last of them. But if 
we take our time, and talents, and money, and 
plant them in the garden of Christ's 
cause at a suitable season, we reap 
from fifty to a hundred-fold more 
than we sow, in this life, and in 
the world to come life everlasting. 
When you take what you really love and 
part with it for the sake of what God's 
cause in the world really needs, you are 
taking up your cross and following Jesus, 
and so are His disciple. Nor does this 



THE PROXY GROSS. 



197 



principle lie only at the root of all real 
progress in nature, but also in the customs 
of societ\ T . Mother, you have a darling 
boy. You say he is a great comfort to 
you in the home. You like to have him 
near you. He grows up by your side as the 
honor and pride of your heart. The time 
comes when you can do no more for that 
boy in your home. But you have a little 
money. You say, that money was left me 
by his father, now gone. It is very pre- 
cious. I shall need it some day. It is all 
I have to depend on when old age and 
infirmities set in. But there is your boy 
panting for an education. He is too tender 
and sensitive to suggest anything to you 
about sending him to college. He keeps 
casting around for something to do to pay 
his way. He is such a devoted boy that 
he will live on little rather than not have 
an extensive education. You see and feel 
it all. What does your motherly heart 
suggest? Ah, you say, I love my boy. 
He has been always true and kind to me. 
I will trust him with my fortune. And so 
you say to him, one day when he is wish- 
ing for better means of growth : My dear, 
you know about those five thousand dol- 
lars your precious father provided for me 
to keep me in my old age ; but now, my 
dearest, I want you to draw on that and 
go to the university. I hate to have you 
go away, but it is for your good. My 
reward will be in knowing I am doing my 
very best for you. Tears fill the grateful 
eyes of that wistful youth. He feels no 
mother is like his mother. He throws his 
arms around her loving neck, and kisses 
her again and again, and calls her his own 
precious mother. She feels compensated 
almost already. The lad goes to the uni- 
versity. The fact that the mother has 



sacrificed everything for his sake makes 
him study like a Greek. He rises step by 
step, honestly, slowly, steadily, day- after 
day. And when valedictory day comes 
it is her Henry that is valedictorian. The 
great hall is pack ed with ail the expect-, 
ancv of such occasions. Speech after 
speech is given, bouquet after bouquet is 
passed forward. But at length the great 
moment comes. Mr. Henry Braveheart, 
with pride and confidence, is announced 
as valedictorian. The great audience leans 
forward to listen. A thoughtful, well- 
built, modest youth steps with a seemly 
bearing upon the forum. He opens his 
lips, and the torrent of burning eloquence 
begins to flow. Thought after thought 
scintillates with the originality and lustre 
of a star. Gem after gem, blazing with 
the fervor of a July sun, falls from those 
lips of hope and of love. Mountain peak 
after mountain peak of oratory is reached, 
and finally the young orator gathers all 
the glittering gems into one great con- 
stellation, and pours them forth upon the 
now enraptured throng. Hearts melt, 
tears flow, huzzas fill the air, the white 
doves flutter, parasols wave, hats are 
thrown up. The audience springs to its 
feet in a bewilderment of admiration, as 
the. young man takes his seat, giving prom- 
ise that if the bar need the eloquence of 
a Webster, it is there ; if the pulpit need 
the pathos of a Summerfield, it is there ; 
and that if the country need the fidelity 
of a Garfield, the nobility of a Lincoln, or 
the grandeur of a Grant, they are all 
there. O, happy mother ! Blessed son ! 
All because they both took up their cross, 
— she to give and pray, he to toil and 
trust. Beloved, this land furnishes many 
such examples. This picture is one that 



198 



THE PROXY CROSS. 



has passed before my pastoral eyes. There 
are many more such in our beloved land. 
But they all prove that before you can 
have great growth, grand progress, rich 
results, you must first take up the cross. 
That is, deny themselves of a present 
minor benefit for the sake of an absent 
major blessing. 

As a general description, then, bearing 
the cross after Christ means saying, doing 
or giving something that lies across or 
against our natural inclinations, or 
apparent personal interests, for the sake 
of the company of Christ in our hearts, 
and the cause of Christ in the world. 

I. Look at bearing the cross by our 
words. It is easy to be deficient in this. 
There are many who have little idea of 
properly bearing the cross after Christ by 
speech. 

A thing needs to be said to some erring 
one. Instead of saying it to such, many 
say it of, and always start a story that does 
more harm than good. Many excuse 
themselves from saying the honest, proper 
thing to some faulty one on the plea that 
the preacher should do it, or the class 
leader. People frequently come to me 
and say such and such an one is doing so 
and so. My proper reply is, well, did you 
tell the person himself about it ? And if not, 
go and counsel love, and pray him out of it. 
It does him no good to tell me. Tell 
himself. He is the only proper person to 
address. 

Those of you who evade speaking sin- 
cerely and honestly with your brothers 
and sisters in regard to their faults, and 
lay that responsibility on me, or on some 
one else, are following the bad example of 
the Jerusalemites. They laid the cross on 
Simon the Cyrenian to bear it after Jesus, 



Then there are some of you who know you 
ought to testify to the goodness of God to 
you and yours. You know that God says 
" Ye are my witnesses." You know he 
declares, " He that offereth praise glori- 
fieth Me." You know you should have a 
Divine story to tell, and that you should 
tell it for the glory of God and the good 
of the order of Jesus. But you sit still 
and say to yourselves, "No, not I. Let 
others speak, and sing, and pray, and 
praise God. It is too troublesome. I 
don't want to have my tranquility dis- 
turbed. I want to go on and enjoy the 
meeting, but I don't want to say or sing 
anything. I place the duty of doing that 
on others." Then you are making others 
bear the cross for you. Yours is a proxy 
cross. You are following the example of 
the murderous Jerusalemites who laid the 
cross on Simon the Cyrenian. 

Again, in every living, progressive 
Church like this there is always a great 
opportunity of doing good to sinners, by 
pleading with them, by exhorting them to 
turn from their wickedness to God. The 
early Methodists were people of power 
because they moved out upon the world 
" with cries, entreaties, tears to save." To 
be a Methodist was to be a Salvationist. 
They pioneered the truth at all times. They 
heralded it in all places. They spoke it 
plainly to all persons. They sowed the 
seed that is now taking root in the Church 
of England, in Presbyterian, Congrega- 
tional, Baptist, and, may we not hope, even 
in the Romanist Church. They were people 
of little influence, but of mighty power. 
They did not lay the cross on each other. 
Every pioneer bore his own cross. They 
did not believe in proxy crosses, but in 
personal endeavor for the^ salvation of 



THE PROXY CROSS. 



199 



dying men. They were not content to 
gather in a little group by themselves to 
sing, and pray, and tell each other how 
good they were. They did hold private 
meetings, but these were looked on as 
drill meetings — equipment gatherings — in 
Avhich they put on the armor of battle. 
Then class meetings and love feasts wera 
not bat tie-grounds, but training-grounds, 
whence each one went forth bear- 
ing his cross after Jesus. The 
early Methodists were ready to speak 
anywhere, to anybody, about their 
souls. They were not content to let any 
opportunity pass without doing so. The 
fire burned in their bones, and they would 
tell the unsaved what great things the 
Lord had done for them. It may 
not have been always pleasant, nor easy, 
nor polite, as the world goes, to do so. 
But they were not following the world. 
They were not following then- feeling, nor 
their convenience, but their co?ivictions, 
their faith, and their Master. This, my 
hearers, is the true way. It is the Christ 
way, and the Apostolic way, and there is 
no other safe, nor efficient, nor honest 
way. The question with the true Christ- 
ian is not, what x^ e(JL8 ^ n g things he can 
say, but what profitable things he can say. 
Such profitable things usually have the 
cross in them. They are against the inclin- 
ation, and against the apparent interests of 
the speaker many times. But that makes 
no difference with the Christian. His 
business is to speak of Jesus and His love, 
even when doing so brings upon him hate 
and scorn, and ridicule and contempt. And 
the Christian does not put this offensive 
duty off on another. He discharges it 
himself. He knows he is a soldier. His 
business is to fight, to fight hard, and 
strong, and long, and never give up the 
field. He knows he has God with him, 
and though he contend against thousands 
he is sure to win the battle. The con- 
sciousness of right gives him might, and 
so he goes on singing in his soul, — 

" Surrounded by a host of foes, 

Storm'd by a host of foes within, 

Nor swift to flee, nor strong to oppose, 



Single against hell, earth and sin ; 
Single, yet undismayed, I am, 
I dare believe in .Jesus' name. 

What though a thousand hosts engage, 
A thousand worlds my soul to shake, 
I have a shield shall quell their rage, 
And drive the alien armies back. 
Portray'd it bears a bleeding Lamb, 
I dare believe in Jesus' name." 

It is this holy passion that makes men 
powerful. It is this abandon that makes 
the real saint. With such a passion of 
abandonment to the work and will of God, 
no man wants to lay the cross on others 
that he should take up himself. The 
question with such a soul is not, how few 
crosses, or how light crosses he can carry. 
The question with him ever is, how many 
crosses, how heavy, how difficult and 
dangerous crosses can I bear ? He means 
business. And his cry is, " As much as in 
me lieth," I stand ready to speak to one 
person, or to ten persons, or to ten thou- 
sand persons, " the unsearchable riches of 
Christ." Oh, if every member of this 
Temple were such a willing, ready, cross- 
bearing speaker, how soon you would take 
Boston ? You would deliver such an 
avalanche of truth as would drive Satan 
and his cohorts out to sea. Beloved, let 
us resolve that we will hand no proxy 
crosses round. Let us take up our own 
crosses as they come, and bear them after 
Jesus for ourselves. Let us speak the 
right word to the right person. It may be 
a cross for you to speak to your husband 
about his highest welfare. Take up that 
cross and bear it after Jesus. It may be a 
cross for you to speak to your wife about 
her eternal interests. Take up that cross 
and bear it after Jesus. It maybe a cross 
for you to speak to your children about 
their personal salvation. Take up that 
cross and bear it after Jesus. It may be 
a cross for you to speak in the class meet- 
ing, and prayer meeting, about how good 
God is to you. But take up that cross 
and bear it after Jesus. It may be a heavy 
cross for you to speak to the vast number 
of people hovering on the verge of salva- 
tion, looking over the rim of the Church to 
see and hear what is going on. Take up 



200 



THE PROXY CROSS. 



that cross and bear it after Jesus. It may 
be the weightiest cross of all, for you to 
speak to the scoffing sinner, the unbeliev- 
ings corner, about his dangerous folly. But 
take up that cross and bear it after Jesus. 
Remember, Jesus is ever before you. He 
leads the way. You are to follow. He 
will sympathize, and sanction and sustain, 
and delight in you. He has taken the co?i- 
tract to see you safely through. He never 
goes back on His bargain. If you stand 
up for Him, He will stand up for you. If 
you confess Him before men, He "will con- 
fess you before His Father, and the holy 
angels." What a glorious confession that 
will be ! There was once a son of a very 
rich man who went to the war. In the 
thick of the fray he was desperately 
wounded, and left on the field for death. 
The burial brigade came along to take the 
bodies to the trench. A member of the 
corps saw the young man's chest heave, 
and said to his comrades, " There is life 
there." The comrades did not so believe, 
and insisted on putting him in the trench 
with the dead. But this man resisted them 
all, and said, " Don't bury him. I know 
there is life in him. His pulse is very 
feeble and slow, and he is unconscious, but 
there is life, and I will take the responsibil- 
ity of detailing myself to take care of 
him." He ran and wet his parched lips 
with water. He took him up, and made a 
pillow for his head on his bosom. After a 
little the closed eyes opened, the pulse 
grew strong and regular, and the strong 
man bore him off on his shoulders to the 
ambulance, which took him to the hospi- 
tal, where, in a few weeks, he was well 
enough to go home. After the war closed, 
that young man had not forgotten his 
friend. He told his family and friends 
about him. He sent for him to come and visit 
him in his beautiful home. He introduced 
him to his father, mother, brothers, sisters, 
and friends. He gave a banquet in his 
honor, and at that banquet he placed 
his arm lovingly round his neck, 
and kissed him, and said, " Oh my 
friend, if it had not been for you, I would 
have been decaying in a Southern grave. 



If it had not been for you, this 
precious mother and father never would 
have known what became of their loving 
boy. If it had not been for you, I never 
could have seen their face again. If it had 
not been for you, George, I should have 
been buried out of sight forever. You 
were a friend to me when most I needed 
a friend. I owe my life, my all, to you. 
Why should not I love and honor you, and 
acknowledge you as the best friend on 
earth ?" The hearts of that company began 
to melt. Tears of admiration and gratitude 
began to flow, and George was not only 
the legal lion of the banquet, but became 
the accepted lover of the young man's 
sister. 

That was a rare and beautiful occasion. 
There is one occasion that will surpass it. 
That will be when you are invited to the 
Great Banquet in Heaven. When Jesus 
will take you in and introduce you to His 
Father, and the angels, and the whole 
family of God, and will say, " I was hun- 
gry, and you gave me meat ; I was thirsty, 
and you gave me drink ; I was a stranger, 
and you took me in ; naked, and you 
clothed me ; sick and in prison, and you 
visited me. I was about to be ignored, 
forsaken, and buried in your place ; but you 
came to me, and confessed me, and lifted 
me up, and I grew strong in the hearts 
and minds of the people. And many have 
come gathering home from thence, and it 
is all because you confessed me before 
men, and now I confess you. I welcome 
and crown you. I introduce you to 
all the best there is in Heaven. For " I 
confess you before my Father and the 
holy angels." Ah, beloved, what a glor- 
ious prospect ! There is no other like i% 
beneath the sun. That prospect is yours, 
patient, cross-bearing Christian. Be 
patient, be persistent a little longer, and 
you shall know the marvelous meaning of 
this most illustrious confession of you by 
Christ in Heaven. 

II. Consider bearing the cross in your 
deeds. If it is hard for some to bear the 
cross in their words it is equally hard for 
others to do so in their doings. 



THE PROXY CROSS. 



201 



You see certain things should be done. 
You see that people should he warmly wel- 
comed. You see new carpets or mattings 
should be placed in the aisles. You see 
new song books should be put in the seats. 
You see that much should be done to make 
the services more mightily edifying to saints 
and saving to sinners. This should be done 
and that should be done. Now, then, why 
don't you do it ? You pass this cross on to 
somebody else. You do not like to work, 
but you like to look at others work. You 
remind us of what one sees on the streets. 
Here are a few men digging down to stop a 
gas leak or to correct a faulty telephone or 
telegraph wire, or to scoop out a founda- 
tion for a new edifice. And you find gath- 
ered round them from five to fifty hangers- 
on and loafers who are too lazy and shift- 
less to do anything. Now a church loafer 
is far worse than a street loafer — a fellow 
that lives spiritually on other people; a 
lazy humbug that goes around just to 
see what is going to happen; a poor, 
shiftless creature, who shoves his own cross 
ever over on somebody else. He won't 
work — no, not he. He's too precious for 
that. He just wants to sit around and 
superintend the job. Now I want to give 
notice that we don't need any self-consti- 
tuted superintendents here. I am in that 
business myself, and what I want you to do 
is go to work and prove yourself good for 
something. There is plenty of work to do 
here. If any of you want to know what 
it is, come to me. Don't keep putting off 
your duty on other people. Other people 
have enough to do to do their own. There 
is work for another thousand men and an- 
other thousand women right here in con- 
nection with this temple. The ground is 
thick with crosses that cannot find bearers. 
There are plenty of proxy cross bearers. 
These go about saying, practically, "you do 
this, and you do that, and I'll do nothing; 
I'll just do nothing but talk a little, if my 
chin is not too tired, about how you do it; 
that's all." May Heaven have mercy on 
you, you lazy rascals. Those jibing Jews 
in Jerusalem who laid the cross on Simon, 
the Cyrenian, were kings compared to you. 



They were more active. They did what 
they thought should be done. If they had 
had your light and privileges they would 
have been active Christians. Wake up 
and do the will of God, for "It is not every 
one," said Jesus, "that saith Lord! Lord! 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; 
but he who doeth the will of my Father 
which is in heaven." 

III. Now glance at bearing the cross 
after Jesus by giving. There are some 
church members who are willing to speak 
and ready to do, but they just spoil when 
you mention giving. Now, when you 
joined the church you promised to give as 
God would prosper you — that is if you 
understood the sacred vow you took at the 
altar when you were received into full 
membership; you promised to give in pro- 
portion to your earnings. The amount of 
that proportion God has specified for you 
in His holy word — to His Church one-tenth 
first, and after that what you can spare for 
other good causes. Mr. Washburn, Presi- 
dent of our Board of Trustees, sets us all 
a noble example in this regard, and others 
whom we could name do the same. But 
there are some of you who do not follow 
either the command of God or the example 
of His faithful children. You avoid your 
duty and privilege in this matter. You 
push that cross over on others to bear. You 
leave others to pay for your privileges and 
settle your bills. This is as disreputable 
and dishonest in spiritual as it is in secular 
things. How can you expect God to bless 
you so long as you act in that way? Will 
those of you who are afflicted with this 
spirit and habit read and study a late ser- 
mon delivered from this pulpit on "The 
Liberal Christian"? You will there find 
this question discussed at reasonable length, 
and if you follow the principles laid down 
in that discourse it will be a great blessing 
to you and the Church. Every true Christ- 
ian carries a triple cross — speaking, doing, 
giving, are its three parts. If you cut off 
any one part you spoil the symmetry of the 
other parts. That symmetry you do not 
want to destroy. You need to be perfect 
in every good word, work and gift. A 



202 



1HE PROXY CROSS. 



man of education and means came to me 
a short time ago. He said : " I have been 
a church member for many years, but I 
have become cold, and stiff and useless. I 
once had power with God and men, and I 
seem to have lost it all. I want to get 
back to where I once was ; I want to enjoy 
what I once enjoyed; I want to feel the 
serenity, happiness and strength of other 
days. I have been looking around and 
saying to myself : 

"Where is the blessedness I knew, 

When first I saw the Lord? 
Where is the soul-refreshing view 

Of Jesus and His Word? 
What peaceful hours I once enjoyed ! 

How sweet their memory still! 
But now I feel an aching void 

The world can never fill." 

"Now," said he, " I want you to diagnose 
my case and tell me what is the source of 
my sorrow." 

1 said to him : " If I am to give you an 
accurate diagnosis of your disease, being a 
stranger to me, I must ask you some lead- 
ing practical and personal questions." 

"Go on," said he, " I'll answer honestly 
every question I can answer." 

I then asked : " Have you been taking 
up the triple cross and bearing it after Jesus?" 

He said : " What do you mean by the 
triple cross?" 

I said : " We find in God's word a three- 
fold duty for Christians — speaking for 
Jesus, working for Jesus, and giving for 
Jesus. The history of Christians shows 
that they who bear this threefold cross 
succeed, and that they who put it off on 
others fail." He was an honest man, and 
he replied : " I must confess I never 
thought of the threefold cross before. I 
think you have struck at the vitals of my 
case. I confess I have been speaking very 
little, doing very little and giving very little 
for J esus. I have felt that His cause could 
get along very well without me, and so I 
kept shifting these duties on to others, and 
now I find that while the Kingdom of Christ 
can move along very well without me that 
I cannot move along well without it. I am 
getting left, and I feel as though 
the real Kingdom of Christ was moving 
away ahead of me and independently 



of me, and I am lonely and sad." 

I said to him : "And you ought to add, 
sinful. It was a great sin to quit bear- 
ing the cross and impose it on others. It 
was the mistake of your life to suppose 
that bearing a proxy cross would be of 
any service to you or to mankind. E very 
man must take up his own cross and bear 
it after Jesus whithersoever He goeth." 

" Well," he said, " I feel that has been 
my great mistake. What am I now to 
do ?" I replied : " The first thing for you 
to do is to come back with all your heart 
to the Master ; tell Him all you have done; 
confess everything to Him; tell Him how 
heartbroken you are; tell Him if He wall 
receive you back you will obey Him 
promptly, cheerfully, fully. And then, 
having given yourself to Him, give your- 
self to the service of His cause. Bear 
into that cause the triple cross. Speak 
for Him, work for Him, give for Him, and 
let me know the results." 

After prayer together we said good-bye. 
He went away, and here is a letter from him. 

" My Dear Doctor Brady : I shall never 
forget the interview with you. You ana- 
lyzed the source of my trouble exactly 
and you prescribed the precise remedy I 
needed. I have followed your prescription, 
and am no longer a weary, worn, 
heartless, despondent man. The 
dark clouds have passed away from 
my mind, the heavy burdens from my 
heart. My soul is as light, and jubilant, 
and songful, as a morning lark. I can say 
" Amen " and " Hallelujah," and " Praise 
the Lord " even in open meeting. I t can 
do anything with a joyful Spirit my Master 
opens up for me to do; and, best of all, perhaps 
I have got so far that I can give cheerfully 
one-tenth of my income to the Church of 
which I am a member, and rejoice in giv- 
ing, also, to other good causes. I am no 
longer a mere looker-on, a mere proxy 
cross-bearer. I am now a bearer of the 
triple cross, made up of speaking, acting, 
giving, and am most happy. 

" This consecrated cross I'll bear 

Till death shall set me free ; 
And then go home, my crown to wear, 

For there's a crown for me." 



Samson 



"But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and then brought him down to Gaza and 
bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house." — Judges xvi : 21. 



nAJESTY, recklessness and ruin are 
the leading features of Samson. 
I. Look at his native majesty. 
Israel had done evil, and been delivered 
into Philistine bondage for forty years. The 
tribe of Dan had been one of the greatest 
sufferers, and from that trite deliverance 
should come. The Divine Angel was 
commissioned to confer with Manoah and 
his childless wife. The Child to be born 
was to be a Nazarite. His mother was to 
drink no wine, and to eat no unclean food. 
She was to be a Nazarene. Her son was 
to be distinguished by his prodigious 
strength, and the long locks of his flowing 
hair. Like his mother, he was to be pecu- 
liarly the Lord's. The Spirit of the Lord 
was to come upon him, and he was to 
have a bearing of grandeur all his own. 
When the angel delivered this message, he 
ascended in the flame of sacrifice, and 
Manoah felt he had come forth from, and 
returned to God. My friends, the picture 
portrays the majestic origin of many of 
you. The Israel of God has been in bond- 
age. The Divine Messenger has gone 
forth to your fathers, and your mothers. 
They have hoped you were to be special 
blessings to mankind. They have made 
many sacrifices for your sake. They have 
seen the angel of love ascend in a sacri- 
ficial flame. Parental prayers have fol- 
lowed his ascent, even before you were 
born. There are men and women here to- 
night. There are many young people here 
this horn* for whom great things were pre- 
pared, for whom majestic powers were 



intended. Some of you have been born 
to be beautiful exemplars of the religion of 
Jesus. Others of you have been intended 
to be leaders and commanders of the peo- 
ple. Others of you have been endowed 
with powers which should have adorned 
the pulpit, the forum, the parliament, and 
the press. Others of you have been 
created with germs of energies, which, 
w r hen grown, would have regenerated 
society. Others of you have been gifted 
with a versatility of forces, which, if 
cultivated, would have lifted this world 
toward Heaven. But you have not 
realized your personal capacities. You 
have not recognized your own possibilities. 
You have not even dreamed of the almost 
limitless powers with which you have been 
entrusted. You have looked upon your 
birth and life as mere natural events. You 
have looked upon yourselves as only wor- 
thy of browsing with the common herd. 
And so, instead of rising to the superb 
majesty of your mission, you have " ran 
with the multitude to do evil." You never 
gave the germs of greatness in you a 
chance to grow. You smothered them 
under the foul shades of secularity and 
sin. There are people here who, if they 
had followed up their original endow- 
ments, would now be shining like lustrous 
stars in the firmament of mankind. But 
you have lost your way. You have gone 
out in the darkness, far into the night. 
The world will never feel the radiance of 
your life. There are more people in the 
cold, wild, wicked world to-night who 



208 



SAMSOJST. 



ought to be in the pulpit by far, than are 
in the pulpit. There are more magnificent 
souls in ruins, who ought to have been 
leaders and lights of mankind than there 
are leaders and lights of men. It is a sol- 
emn and awful fact that there are more 
magnificent talents in men that are shrivel- 
ling up for want of recognition and use, 
than are being used by all the good and 
noble people of the world. There are 
plenty of people here in Boston, in New 
England, and in America, who are 
obscure, and poverty-stricken, and good- 
for-nothing, who should have been shining 
in all the great avenues of human life. 
When I went to Central Church, Newark, 
New Jersey, there were two young men 
in that city that illustrate my meaning. 
One of those young men recognized noth- 
ing special in himself. He was a bright, 
beautiful, and benignant youth. But he 
would not consider any serious, or import- 
ant mission in life. He just wanted to 
have a good, social, jovial time, as the 
secularized side of the Church understands 
it. He could loaf around, and laugh, and 
entertain the girls with all the small talk 
of a Romeo. He was not wanting in ra- 
diant and responsive Juliet. He read 
everything in general, but never mastered 
anything in particular. He was a youth 
of splendid natural gifts, but he did not 
recognize how serious, and significant, and 
responsible a matter it is to be charged 
with such talents. His gifts of politeness, 
gentility, and sociability, would carry him 
creditably in any company. He was bril- 
liant as a thinker, conversationalist, and 
general all-round good fellow, as society 
puts it. Everybody spoke well of him. 
He was far ahead of a good many of you 
church loafers. You hangers-on, who 



buzz around only with the view of 
making a convenience of the church — a 
sort of a rendezvous, where you can come 
and ogle the girls, and arrange assign- 
ments. He wouldn't have wiped his feet 
on you rascals. But still he had no great 
purpose. He did not know the possibili- 
ties that were in him, and he would not 
learn. I used to take him aside and say, 
" Now, my dear fellow, you ought to be 
living for the best ^within you, and not in 
this mediocre, commonplace manner. You 
have the elements of greatness in you, and 
you can make them glorious." No, he 
could not see it. The reason was, he 
would not see it. What became of him ? 
After a while he grew weary of church 
life, as everyone will who lives merely on 
the husks, instead of the kernels. He 
dropped gradually out of the church into 
the beer-garden. From thence into the 
theatre, and from thence into the saloon, 
and from thence into the brothel, and what 
next? and from thence into despair and 
destruction. And on that downward grade 
there are many of you here just now. You are 
measuring yourselves up while I speak. 
You are taking your bearings, and is it not 
true that many of you are living next door 
to hell now, and the very next step will 
plunge you into it. Ah, my brother, my 
sister, instead of going farther, think, stop, 
turn and come to me after this service, 
and give me your word that you will come 
to yourself, and then go to your Father, 
and say to him, " Father, I have sinned, 
and am not worthy to be called Thy son ; 
make me as one of Thy hired servants." 
If you will but do this, He will rejoicingly 
receive you. He will take those latent 
j)owers he gave you, and yet bring them 
out, and up into full flush of strength, util- 



SAMSON. 



209 



ity, and beauty. He knows the rich deposit 
he has made in your life. He knows how 
to use it if you place it in His care. He 
can so multiply it that it will bring forth 
ten thousand-fold to your good, and His 
glory. This is seen in the record of the 
other young man. Let us see what God 
made of him, because to came to 
Him, and stayed with Him. This young 
man was not of so superb and dashing 
nature as the one who might have done so 
well, and did so badly. He was not quite so 
popular in society. He was somewhat 
taciturn. His tongue was not hung quite 
so loosely, nor so near the middle. No 
one thought that any very bright future 
awaited him. He did a number of import- 
ant things, however, that the other would 
not do. He noticed things closely. He 
listened attentively . He did not loaf, and 
lounge around the church ; he came there 
on business. His business was to worship 
God, and learn something about his privi- 
leges and duties. He applied everything 
that suited him to himself, and not to 
others. He attended prayer meeting, and 
took apart. He was on hand in class meet- 
ing. He always did anything he under- 
took. He always kept his word. He 
always was on time, and regarded his 
engagements as bonds. He did not impress 
one much at first, but the continuance of 
the young man in these habits led me to 
look to him when I needed a person of 
trust to do a thing of importance.. I could 
rely on him, and in him. Others could 
confide in him. He was also, I observed, 
in the habit of using his Bible, and his 
Hymn Book. He was in the habit of no- 
ting down a new thought in a sermon, or a 
new plan for carrying forward the work. 
Still nobody yet expected much of him. 



But it was not long before these habits, 
strung on a strong, active purpose, began 
to bring out the latent germs of greatness 
that God had planted in his nature — possi- 
bilities that had been buried 'neath the 
wreckage of Adam's fall ; germant possi- 
bilities that were capable of overgrowing 
and outgrowing all that debris. He began, 
unknowingly to himself, to attract atten- 
tion of observing men. He began to be 
felt more and more every day as a force 
for good. He began to conceive the idea 
that he might be of service to somebody. 
He worked, and prayed, and lived, so that 
his whole life shaped in that direction. He 
began to conceive a great love for the 
cause of God ; for the souls of men ; for 
the growth of the church ; and although 
handicapped in a good many ways, he 
grew rapidly. What is the result ? The 
result is that for the last fifteen years, he 
has stood, and stands, like a mountain of 
light in many parts of this world, lifting 
thousands upon thousands of human beings 
from the horrors of despair to the joys of 
salvation. The natural and circumstantial 
difference in the two men was in favor 
of the former. But now the latter is as 
much superior to the former as Heaven is 
to hell. The reason of that difference lies 
in the fact that the one recognized the 
majesty and importance of the treasures 
God had implanted in him for improve- 
ment ; but the other failed to realize their 
importance, gave them up to death, and 
they delivered him up to damnation. 

II. This leads us to notice the next 
stage in the career of Samson, namely, the 
recklessness that led to his ruin. He was 
evidently most highly favored. His mother 
must have loved him with a strange and 
affectionate anticipation. She admired 
him, and called him Samson, which means 
in the Hebrew form, Shimshown, sunlight. 
She expected great and good things from 
a child around whose birth had played such 
radiant beams from far-off home. He 



210 



SAMSOK 



grew up to be the Hercules of his race, 
the Achilles of his tribe, the mighty Aga- 
memnon of his day. Such strength never 
had been witnessed in any Hebrew giant. 
Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Gideon, were but 
physical pigmies compared with him. His 
feats became known far and near. He 
was also under most excellent influences. 
" The Spirit of the Lord began to move 
upon him " in the camp, and he became 
the darling of his day. But . his youthful 
successes soon led to youthful excesses. He 
was not satisfied with the tame, pastoral 
life in holy Palestine. He ascended the 
hill-tops of Palestine, and looked over the 
fertile, luring landscapes, towns, cities, and 
villages of populous Philistia. He was not 
content with the lovely hills and dales of 
Canaan. Distance lent enchantment to 
the view. He must go out and see the 
girls and glories of the alien. The Jewish 
maidens were not quite inviting and heart- 
storming enough for him, and so, against 
the loving entreaties of his parents, he was 
captured by the coy blandishments of a 
Philistine, and ordered the old folks to 
" get her for him, for she pleased him 
well." From that time forward he had 
little else save sorrow. Before that he 
had little else but joy. He had taken an 
enemy to wife, and, naturally enough, 
everything began to conspire against him. 
Through his heathen wife, he gave him- 
self to gambling. The Philistines, through 
her, laid a trap for him, and he lost thirty 
sheets, and thirty garments, and his wife, 
and father-in-law into the bargain. Burn- 
ing with vengeance, he grew so grotesquely 
and gruesomely mischievous that he had 
his servants catch 300 foxes, and tie 
fire-brands to their tails, and sent them, 
flaming with destruction, into the Philis- 
tines' corn fields. The Philistines retorted 
by invading Israel, and the Israelites 
replied by binding Samson, and delivering 
him to the Philistines. They shouted in 
victory over their captive when he broke 
loose, and slew a thousand of them with 
"the new jawbone of an ass." But this 
only added to his accumulating sorrows. 



The Philistines were now more than ever 
determined on his destruction, He went 
down to Gaza, and was there, by intrigue, 
implicated in another woman scrape. He 
escaped, carrying with him the doors of 
the city gate, only to become afterwards 
entangled in the languishing charms of 
Delilah. As soon as he crawled out of 
one pitfall, he immediately tumbled into 
another. What am I painting before you. 
I am painting the picture of hundreds of 
men now before me. You were brought 
up in the innocence of your far-off country 
home. The sun smiled upon your youth- 
ful days. The stars watched over your 
boyhood nights. Your own precious 
mother pressed her sweet, soft hand upon 
your blooming cheek. Your dear, fond 
father' went to your trundle bed and 
tucked you cosily at night. You grew up 
the pride and joy of parental hearts. They 
loved you as no others may. The neigh- 
bors, too, were kind. You grew rapidly 
into favor with all around. You were the 
young Samson of your place and time. 
Everybody looked upon you with pride 
and hope. But the old farm-house became 
too tame. The old moss-covered bucket 
by the well had but little charm. The hills 
and dales of your own country grew 
monotonous and dull. You heard of other 
and more charmful realms. You listened 
to the siren voices from afar. You heard 
of the rush, roar, and style of city life. 
Your impulses at first may have been 
good. You wanted to give yourself a 
chance. You wanted to see the world, or 
you wanted to educate yourself in the 
science, art, and literature of the day. And 
so, with a hungry, heavy heart, you said 
good-bye to those dear old folks at home. 
You cannot forget that father's last look 
at the stile, nor that mother's last long, 
sigh at the well. You choked everything 
down, and went forth. You have been 
many places since then. You have been 
down to sandy and barren Gaza. You 
have been over the flowery glades of Phil- 
istia. But now you are in the hands of 
the Philistines. Your money is gone. 



SAMSON. 



211 



Your character is gone. Your will power 
is gone. Your innocence, alas, is gone. 
You are a patron of the theatre. You 
are a habitue of the saloon. You are a 
visitant of the house of death. You are 
scourged with the lashings of a guilty con- 
science. You know you are on the high- 
way to ruin, and yet you do not stop. 
Like Samson, you think your superior 
strength will stand you in good stead. 
Like him, you will kill your lion, by the 
way, and next month eat honey from his 
carcass. Like him, you will be avenged 
yet on your enemies by foxy trickery. Like 
him, you will rend . the ropes with which 
the enchantress binds you, and slay a 
thousand enemies with the jaw-bone of an 
ass. Like him, you will carry off the doors 
by which your foes shut you in, and sit 
down laughing at them on the hill. All 
this you may do, my brother. But as sure 
as you persist in your wanton and worldly 
ways you will some day soon meet 
your fate (Delilah.) She will not be 
betrayed with your seven green withes, 
which are usually seven green lies. She 
will not be satisfied with your new ropes 
of inventions, which you can break 
through as if they were threads of tow, 
touched with fire. She will, if you perse- 
vere, yet find your vital secret. She will 
shave the seven locks of your strength 
from your head, then raise the cry, " the 
Philistines be upon thee, Samson," and 
then will there be none to deliver. Sam- 
son did not meet Delilah at first ; neither 
have you. Samson first forsook the advice 
of his father and mother ; so have you. 
This was his first step downward ; so it 
was yours. Samson went out of the good 
company of the church into the bad com- 
pany of the world ; so have you. ' This 
was his second step downward ; so it was 
yours. Samson trusted in his own 
strength to deliver him from the 
bonds of his foes; so have you. 
This was his third step downward ; so it is 
yours. Samson became more reckless the 
farther he went, and the longer he stayed 
in the land of his adversaries ; so have 



you. This was his fourth step downward ; 
so it is yours. The time came when Sam- 
son's recklessness placed him entirely at 
the mercy of his foes. And that time is 
coming to you. That was Samson's last 
step downward ; and so it shall be yours. 
Ah, recklessness, thou art the mother of 
ruin ! Thou hast ruined thy millions ! 
Thou dost ruin thy millions still ! There 
are many of you here this hour on the 
road to wreckage, simply because you are 
reckless. When you have a few dollars to 
spare, you gather your gang, and say, 
" Blow them in ! " And off you go into 
dissipation and drunkenness. When your 
fathers, and mothers, and friends entreat, 
you give a Dutch shrug, or a French con- 
tortion, and say, " What do I care ?" 
When the preacher lifts up his honest, 
earnest voice, and implores you to turn 
and live, you simply close your eyes, and 
practically say, " What is that to me ?" 
When even penury succeeds, and you are 
deprived of many comforts, and shut up 
in many straits, you simply grind your 
teeth, and stiffen your neck, and strengthen 
the stubborness of your spirit, and 
say, many of you with an oath, " I will 
arise and shake myself as before." Well, 
you may try not to care now, but you will 
care sometime ! You will not be in hell 
two seconds before you will be jumping 
around, crying, "Alas! Alas! I did not 
think it was like this." But, oh my 
brother, my sister, my countryman, then 
it will be too late forever and ever. You 
will then, by recklessness, have brought 
eternal ruin upon yourselves. You will then 
discover God, and that law, and duty, and 
truth, and Heaven, and hell are no trifles. 
Let me entreat you. Let me reason with 
you. Let me persuade you to come to- 
night, and at the close of this service give 
me your word that you will go no farther 
into the Philistines' land; that you will 
abandon the country where the hounds of 
death are unleashed against you ; that 
you will give up drinking, and swearing, 
and obscenity, and harlotry, and every- 
thing else that leads to destruction, and 



212 



SAMSON. 



that } T ou will come home to your Heavenly 
Father, through Jesus, your Elder Brother, 
by the Holy Ghost, the Strengthener. 
Then you will avert the sad, sad fate of 
ruin by recklessness, and obtain the glad- 
some destiny of everlasting joy. 

III. And now, in the last place, look at 
what happened Samson because he did 
not take the advice I now give you. He 
fell into the toils of Delilah, the lan- 
guisher. This ended his usefulness and 
liberty. He had met the lion, and " rent 
him as he would a kid." He had caught 
300 foxes, and sent them flying with fire- 
brands through the enemies' harvest, and, 
rising in his might, had slain many Philis- 
tines with a great slaughter. He had 
broken the bonds with which his brethren 
bound him as if they were burnt with fire, 
and slew in one fight a thousand men. He 
had earned off the doors of the gates of 
Gaza. But he met more than his match 
when he met Delilah. At first he trusted 
to his old tricks for deliverance. He broke the 
withes with which she bound him as a "thread 
of tow when it toucheth fire," and the new 
ropes as if they had been woven by a 
spider. And he walked off with the pin 
of the weaver's beam, to which his seven 
locks were tied, as if it were a little thing. 
But the fair enchantress was too clamor- 
ous, and crafty, and persistent thus to be 
defeated. There was a prize on Samson's 
head. The languishing siren wanted that 
prize. Like every other strumpet, she 
cared more for money than for Samson. 
She probably protested with crocodile 
tears how much she loved him. She loved 
him with her whole soul, and she loved no 
other. She would be true to him though 
all others failed. She would languish and 
die if he did not confide in her, and love 
her, as she loved him. She accused him 
of deceiving her about the secret of his 
strength. She said, " how canst thou say 
I love thee when thy heart is not with me ; 
thou hast mocked me these three times, 
and thou hast not told me wherein thy 
great strength lieth." 

These words won his confidence. He 



likely said to himself, " How cruel I am to 
treat such a sweet, confiding creature as I 
have treated her. I will make her my 
companion, my confidante, my everlasting 
friend." Then he told her all his heart. 
He told her howrazor had not come upon his 
head, how he was a Nazarite from his 
mother's womb ; how, if he were shaven, 
his strength would go from him, and he 
would become weak like other men. Then 
she knew she had him. She soothed him 
sweetly to sleep upon her loving knee. 
She sent for a man to come and shave off 
his locks. She sent for the Philistine 
gentry to come with their bribe. And 
when everything was ready for her pur- 
pose, that dear, dallying, loving languisher 
turned into a stony-hearted fiend. She 
hurled his shaven head from her lap, and 
in a storm of triumph shouted, " The Phil- 
istines be upon you, Samson." The big 
fellow arose and said, " I will go out as at 
other times, and shake myself ; but he 
wist not that the Lord had departed from 
him." Those seven locks were the signs 
that the Nazarites' Jehovah was with him. 
still. But when they were gone, the 
Nazarites' God was gone. Ah, my fallen 
brethren, what a portrait is this of your 
own reckless course. You were in trouble 
after forsaking God and duty. For a 
moment it seemed as though you were 
captured and taken ; but God was still 
with you, and you had strength to break 
away again and again. But finally you 
met your Delilah. You surrendered every- 
thing sacred. You surrendered the seven 
locks of your power, home, marriage, 
Church, Bible, Sabbath, Saviour, and sac- 
rament, and here you are to-night in the 
hands of the Philistines, in the custody of 
the doubters, and the indifferentists,and the 
saloons, and the theatres, and the dancers, 
and the whore-mongers, and the gam- 
blers, and the swearers, and the thieves, 
liars, back-biters, and haters of 
God. Here you are filled with mal- 
ice, and wrath, and hate, and envy, and 
jealousy, and revenge, and the shadow of 
dire despair has thrown the first lap of its 



SAMSON. 



213 



black wing over you. Ah, my fallen 
brothers, will you still march on? Will 
you still remain in dalliance ? Will you 
not flee for your life ? Will you not make 
one desperate, resolute effort to break 
away and reach your own country, and 
your own God, and your own home ? 

If you will not, then let me paint your 
end. And when it comes, you will think 
of this night, and of this opportunity that 
you put away from you. It may be nearer 
than you think. To many of you it doubt- 
less is. What will the end of this pro- 
longed agony of thine be ? Come and 
see ! Come and look over the gulf, and 
perhaps the sight will lead you to turn and 
flee to the mountains of hope. That por- 
trait is outlined, at least typically, in the 
fate of poor Samson, as seen in our text. 

1. The Philistines took him. That 
was the first stage of his ruin. That is the 
first stage in thine. When the world, 
flesh and devil, with all their sub-alterns, 
take a man, when they monopolize him, 
when they attract, fascinate, and dominate 
him, then the first sad stage toward des- 
truction has been reached. You can easily 
enough decide for yourself as to whether 
this stage has been reached in your case. 
Ask your own heart honestly as in the 
searching light of the day of judgment, 
what it is that controls you, and guides, 
and leads you around. Is it the world 
(Philistines) or is it Jesus, the King of the 
Nazarenes. If you find you are more con- 
trolled by the world, and the forces of the 
world, than by the forces of the Christ, 
then you can easily decide in whose cus- 
tody you are, for " to whom ye yield your- 
selves servants to obey, his servants ye 
are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto 
death, or of obedience unto righteousness. 

2. Well, then, if you are passing 
through the first stage, the second shall 
soon be reached. That stage is blindness. 
The Philistines put out Samson's eyes 
after they captured him. That is what 
the modern Philistines will do with 
you. He could no longer look upon the 
glorious sun, nor lovely moon, nor shining 



stars, nor flowery landscape of his native 
land. He could no longer feast his eyes 
upon the rose of Sharon, nor the lily of the 
valley. He could no more behold the 
classic crest of Nebo, nor the heights of 
Gibeon, nor the meandering Jordan. He 
could no longer look with love upon that 
fond mother's face, nor upon that glad 
father's form. All was now midnight 
bondage. And you, too, my hearers, wan- 
dering afar into sin and folly — you, too, 
are going out into the rayless night. The 
time is near when you shall suffer ethical 
eclipse, when you will be so dark and 
dreary, and blind, that you will see no 
good in God, nor Church, nor Bible, nor 
Christ, nor Holy Spirit, nor Heaven. All! 
All ! will be darksome, with a darkness 
that may be, by groping, felt. And the 
only sights and sounds that shall greet you 
will be the sights and sounds of your foes 
forcing you into still more direful diffi- 
culty, danger, and disaster. 

3. The next stage towards Samson's 
utter destruction was the transit from 
Sorek " to Gaza, which is desert." They 
brought him down there. He was seen no 
more in the holy places of Palestine ; no 
more in the Tabernacle of Jehovah ; no 
more in the Judgeship of Israel. That is 
where your Philistines will take you. 
They will take you down to the barren 
Gaza of scepticism, of rationalism, of 
doubt, of fear, of dread, of despair. It 
will be then you will say, Farewell hope, 
farewell good, farewell God. " Evil,- be 
thou my good." 

4. When once you reach this desperate 
stage, then the Philistines will bind you. 
It was then " they bound Samson with fet- 
ters of brass." These were the strongest 
fetters of the times. And so will they 
bind you. They will bind you with the 
fetters of fashion, and passion, and pride, 
and prejudice, and poverty. They will 
make you a " captive, led by Satan at his 
will." 

5. Having taken you thus far, they will 
put on the finishing task of blinded bond- 
age, as they did on Samson. They will 



214 



SAMSON. 



make you "grind in the prison-house." 
They will make you grind their grist for 
them. As I look upon that picture of the 
blind, bound giant sitting there in the 
Philistine prison, shoving the upper mill- 
stone over the nether to make meal for 
his enemies, how strikingly it illustrates the 
cases of thousands of men and women in 
Boston. All the people who work hard 
to earn money, and then spend it on need- 
less dress, or on stupefying drink, or 
on shameless and deceptive Delilahs, are 
grinders in the Philistine mill. You work 
hard all the week, and when Saturday 
night comes, after grinding all week, you 
turn it over to your enemies. They are 
glad to see you as long as your grist lasts. 
But when you cannot bring any more 
money to them, they heap upon you the 
last indignity ; they call upon you in your 
want to make sport for them. They have 
gotten your fortune, your health, your 
hopes, and now they can laugh over you 
as good-natured fools, who were so kind 
as to live for their short-lived welfare. It 
was thus they did with Samson. It is thus 
saloons and theatres will do with you. 
And what is the final result of all this 
coursing toward destruction ? What could 
it be but destruction itself. The destruc- 
tion of you and your enemies in one dire, 
burial blent. It was • so with Sam- 
son and his; it will be so with 
you and yours. The Philistines were 
rejoicing over their victories. They 
had conquered Israel. They had cap- 
tured Samson. They assembled in the 
Temple of Dagon. They offered sacri- 
fices. They made themselves merry. 
They said, « Call for Samson, that he may 
make us sport." The gala day was 
appointed. The Temple was packed to 
see the Hebrew hero in his woe. The big, 
blind, bound giant, who should have been 
the glory of Israel, was brought in. His hair 
had begun to grow on his head. He said to 
a youth that led him by the hand, " Suffer 
me that I may feel the pillars whereon the 
house standeth." The great creature 
grasped a main pillar with one hand, and 



a main pillar with the other, and then, 
with a wild shriek, "he bowed himself 
with all his might," and cried, "Let me die 
with the Philistines." With one great 
upheaval, he hurled the building from its 
balance, and thus slew at his death more 
than he had slain in his life. Such is the 
end of those who tempt, and those who 
yield to temptation. Tempters and tempted 
destroy each other. As the good mutually 
bring life, the bad mutually bring death. 
And they lie slain in the Temple of Dagon 
together. The prize is lost to both. The 
lessons of this strange life are before you. 
The lessons of Christ's life are also known 
to you. Which will yoa follow ? 

Will you be like Samson, 

And in prison grind, 
With galling fetters 

On body, heart, and mind? 

No ; I'll be like Jesus, 

Brilliant, strong, and free ; 
Telling love of God, 

Who loves both you and me. 

Will you be like Sampson, 

And in deep distress 
Hurl death on your foes 

In this dark wilderness? 

No ; I'll be like Jesus, 

Valiant, great, and good ; 
Lifting lost mankind 

To God's own Fatherhood. 

Will you be like Samson, 

Alien, blind, and bound, 
Heaving disaster 

On everything around? 

No ; I'll be like Jesus, 

Sweet, serene, and bright; 
Setting glory stars 

To guide us by their light. 

O, I'll be like Jesus, 

Whate'er else I am; 
And lead blind brothers 

To God's eternal calm. 

Like Jesus? Yes, indeed, 

Whoe'er else may come 
To make us better, 

And help this wild world home. 

And when the world is safe, 

Safe in Father's breast, 
I'll fly to Jesus, 

And have a glorious rest. 



President McKinley and Prosperity 



"Thus sayeth the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; neither let the mighty 
man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth glory in 
this that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord, which exerciseth loving kindness, 
judgment and righteousness in the earth, for in these things [ delight." — Jeremiah rx, 23— 2-i. 



yY :N " 0THER Methodist has been lifted 
/ — \ to the Presidency on the hearts of 
his countrymen. He has had the 
support of the rich and powerful. He had 
not to go out campaigning. He sat in the 
serenity of his Ohio home, and simply 
accepted the great position. He has left 
that home amid a blaze of love, hope, and 
glory. He was greeted on the way to 
Washington with such salvos of salutation 
as show the confidence and admiration 
of the American people. He was received 
in the Capital with the same enthusiastic 
good- will. He has demonstrated his 
bravery as a soldier ; his loyalty as a citi- 
zen ; his sagacity as a statesman, and his 
fidelity as a Christian. But he comes to 
the Presidential honors at a crisis of grave 
governmental responsibilities. The nation 
has been running behind, financially, is 
deeply stirred politically, and has some 
very serious problems to solve. Cuba lifts 
up her voice in tears, and stretches out her 
hands in blood, and cries for pity, and 
deliverance. Crete, from the classic crest 
of Mount Ida, craves freedom from the 
paralyzing power of the Turk. Armenia 
turns her weary eyes from her gory 
slaughter grounds, and hopes for help 
from America. England, chivalrously 
forgetting our old-time disputes, on the 
plea of kinship, of language, religion, and 
blood, seeks the peaceful settlement of 
differences by fraternal arbitration. Social- 
istic American citizens design a diminu- 
tion of the disabilities of the poor, and a 



dissolution of the special privileges of the 
rich. The Silverites, still in the field, 
demand the expansion of the country's 
currency, by unlimited coinage of the 
white metal. The Populists, growing 
apace, demand that the government shall 
be conducted locally and nationally, in the 
interests of the many, and not of the few. 
The A. P. A., resting, but neither asleep 
nor disbanded, require the curtailment of 
Papal presumptions, pretentions, and 
aggressions, and will not rest while priest- 
craft and parochial schools disturb, dis- 
tract, and threaten American liberties, and 
institutions. The Romanists, wary, cau- 
tious, strategic, persistent, and unchange- 
able, demand, in all parts of the land, spec- 
ial favors, and preferments. And when 
we add to all this, the poverty, restless- 
ness, and distress of fully one-half of our 
people, we can easily see that Mr. McKin- 
ley has before him a vast number of Her- 
culean tasks — tasks which will require the 
steadfastness of Moses, the fidelity of 
Joshua, the fortitude of David, and the 
wisdom of both Solon and Solomon. It is 
not enough for us to sit still and say he is 
of " Scotch-Irish " ancestry. He is a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Church. He is a good 
soldier, and a grand citizen. He is the 
people's choice, the nation's idol — the man 
for the place and time. As citizens of 
this unparalleled Commonwealth, our busi- 
ness is to co-operate, in every manner pos- 
sible, to make his presidency so strong, 
wise, good, and suitable, that discontent 



220 



PRESIDENT 3IcKINLEY AND PROSPERITY. 



will be discontinued ; that strife will die 
amid the hymns of peace ; that the poor 
shall trust the rich, and the rich help the 
poor ; that a revenue will be reached that 
shall provide a paying basis, and that this 
young land, in its prosperity, shall lift 
itself up among the misruled nations, and 
bid them all be free. If President McKin- 
ley has now a responsibility from which 
even a Napoleon might well have shrunk, 
there is a corresponding responsibility 
resting upon us, according to our measure. 
He does not undertake to lead us to prosper- 
ity and j)eace by some magic wizard's wand. 
David could not have led Israelites on to 
palmy prime if they had not co-operated 
with him. If Mr. McKinley rectify the 
wrongs, and promote the rights of this 
Republic, it will be because the Republic 
itself has worked together with him to 
that great purpose. That he enters the 
presidency with the best of motives, we 
have no reason to doubt. That he will 
work hard both day and night to weave 
these motives into the breast of this nation 
we do not doubt. That' he will pray to 
that same Almighty to whom Washington, 
and Lincoln, and Garfield prayed, we 
firmly believe. That that same Almighty 
Benefactor who helped the nation in their 
day will help the nation now, we feel 
assured. And yet there is one great law 
of personal and national prosperity, which, 
as a people, we need personally to under- 
stand, and act upon, and that is the law, or 
the method, by which Divine power oper- 
ates. If we know the method by which 
that power comes, and works, and con- 
tinues working, we can do whatever we 
will by the aid of that power. There are 
powers, and there is power. Powers is 
not what, as a nation, we need so much as 



power. There are the powers of human 
wisdom, and manly might, and worldly 
wealth ; but these, while useful in their 
place, may corrupt, and destroy a nation. 
They have ruined all the nations of the 
past. They may ruin the nations of the 
present. Hence the text, " Thus saith the 
Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wis- 
dom ; neither let the mighty man glory in 
his might ; let not the rich man glory in 
his riches." These are powers of utility 
and convenience. They are necessary 
accompaniments of a nation's life ; but 
they are not the power of a nation's life. 
And hence the Lord adds : " But let him 
that glorieth glory in this, that he under- 
standeth, and knoweth Me, that I am the 
Lord, which exercise loving kindness, 
judgment, and righteousness in the earth, 
for in these things I delight." The point 
of emphasis is, " Glory in this, that he 
under standeth and knoweth Me." This is 
an old-time topic, but is full of a new- time 
power. As the old sun is necessary to 
produce the day, so this truth is necessary 
to produce prosperity. Wherever persons 
or nations have displaced it by something 
else, they have gone under. Wherever 
persons or nations have kept it in 
place, they have prospered. To under- 
stand and use the method of Divine power, 
then, is fundamental. It is not a force, 
but the force. No other force is vital and 
permanent without it. It fills, keeps, pro- 
tects, and uses all things that do not die. 
Everything dies when severed from this 
supreme power of the Supreme Being. 

If we are to have prosperity under Pres- 
ident McKinley, or any other Presid- 
ent, there are three things we must do, as 
a people : 

We must know the source andm ethod 
of our power. 



PRESIDENT McKINIEY AND PROSPERITY. 



221 



We must act in accord with the method 
of that power's working. 

And we must glory in it as our chief joy. 

To reach this natural order, we trans- 
pose the text just a little, and put the 
Hebrew root, Yada, to know, first ; Sakal, 
to act, second ; Haled, to glory in, third. 
By this simple transposition, we get at the 
natural order of the treasures of the text. 

I. Then we are to know the method 
of the Divine Being's power of working. 
The early ages were ignorant of the power 
of steam, and its way of working. The 
fathers, therefore, could neither navigate 
the seas, nor traverse the land, as do their 
sons. Our ancestors had no steamships, 
no steam cars, no steam factories, because 
they did not know the methods of steam 
operation. The same is true of electricity. 
The great electric giant was as strong and 
ready for action four thousand years ago, 
as he is today ; but no man knew how to 
harness him to the utilities of man. Since, 
however, men have discovered his nature, 
and his ways of working, they use him to 
propel, and to illumine. And the power 
of electricity to do man's work is only 
limited by man's knowledge. We speak 
with reverence and awe when we say the 
same is true of the Divine power. There 
is nothing that power is not ready to do 
for us if we only know how to use it, or 
rather, how to let it use us. The attain- 
ment of the knowledge of God is like 
every other class of knowledge. It has its 
laws of acquirement. There is no science 
but has its own peculiar and specific laws 
of acquisition. You cannot learn until 
you comply with the methods by which 
the learning is obtained. If the child wants 
to learn reading it must begin with ABC. 
Those and their sister letters compose all 
the literature in our language. You cannot 
form a word, a sentence, nor a paragraph 
without the alphabet. 

It is the foundation of the most elo- 
quently written page, or most majestically 
uttered poem. The same is true of every 
other science. You cannot study geometry 
or Euclid without the axiomatic principles 



of which the science is composed. You can- 
not learn mathematics without knowing 
first notation. You must begin with 1, 2, 3, 
etc., and if you leave out your numerals you 
are lost. To find an unknown quantity in 
Algebra you must first find a known. And 
there is no science that furnishes an excep- 
tion to this law of learning. Progression 
implies something to progress from and in. 
Learning implies something to learn from. 
You must build your science upon some 
established facts or figures, else it is not 
and never can be science. Now I only 
want you to do the same in learning about 
God. You must learn, else you cannot 
know. You must have something that you 
know, else you cannot learn. Here is a 
chair; you know that chair did not grow 
you know it must have had a maker ; you 
look at the chair and you say the maker 
must have had as much intelligence and 
power as were needed to make that chair. 
He could not have made the chair if he 
had not. Or you look at this spacious 
Temple. You know it did not grow here 
like a tree ; you know it had a builder ; you 
conclude that the builder must have had as 
much intellect and strength as were needed 
to frame this building. The producer 
must be equal to the thing produced. The 
work never can be greater than the worker. 
You go outside and look up into the deep 
blue glittering vault. You skim the hori- 
zon, and look over the rim of the earth, 
you see deep after deep of space filled with 
majestic and marvelous worlds. You think 
of the vast design, the illimitable product, 
and sit in pensive wonder at your own ex- 
istence, and the existence of all around ; you 
grasp the telescope ; you lay it against the 
glittering galaxies of the glorious night; you 
discover sun after sun, system above sys- 
tem sweeping round you in amazing mag- 
nificence and stupendous grandeur. The 
sight prostrates you, and to save yourself 
from being overwhelmed, you retire within 
yourself to contemplate the silence, the 
speed, the number, the size, the precision 
of these vast innumerable worlds. And 
now your interest is awakened, you find 



222 



PRESIDENT McKINLEY AND PROSPERITY. 



you are but an atom, and yet an atom with 
an expansibility of intellect that is capable 
of brooding in a bewilderment of delight 
over such amazing structures; but you 
want to be more specific. You seize the 
microscope ; you look at fern, flower, or 
insect, you find each one of the countless 
billions created with such a finished per- 
fection as amazes you as much at the com- 
pleteness of the infinitely little, as at the 
mammoth magnificence of the incompre- 
hensibly great. Great and little, little 
and great, all bearing the finished marks of 
some one infinitely skillful. Your common 
sense teaches you that as the man who 
made this chair or as the man who built 
this Temple must have had power and in- 
telligence sufficient to make the chair, or 
build the Temple. So when you wander 
in wonder looking at the great living tem- 
ple of creation, you conclude the creation 
must have had a creator, at least commen- 
surate with itself. The Creator is not in- 
ferior to His creation. The producer must 
be superior to the product, the workman to 
the work, the builder to the building. And 
so you conclude your first great lesson 
about God. You have learned that He 
has created this universe which becomes 
more astonishing the more it is known. 
You go on knowing more about 
it as the years go by and as you know 
more about it, you know more about Him 
till even in an ecstasy of rapture you join 
the song swell of the saints who stand 
on the sea of glass mingled with fire sing- 
ing the song of Moses and the Lamb saying. 
" Great and marvelous are thy works O 
Lord God the Almighty." 

And yet these works are but the ex- 
ponents of Thee. They show how great 
Thou art in Creative skill and in govern- 
mental power. They show how minute 
and yet how mighty the great Maker of all 
these must be. The practical point of 
importance for us here to note, is that the 
Great Creator preserves all that is worthy 
of preservation in His Dominions. He has 
preserved the earth in its fertility, the 
moon in her reflective beauty, the sun in 



his fertilizing power, the stars in their 
shining courses. And that He who has 
preserved all these from immemorial time 
is the safest and the best Being with whom 
to entrust this nation and the preservation 
of its President and its liberties. God has 
the power. It belongs to Him. He 
gives prosperty to nations. He can 
sprinkle our prairies with the rains of 
growth, and our hills with the dews of 
blessing. He can dry up our springs and 
rivers and order the clouds to empty them- 
selves only in the sea. He can inside the 
next twelve months spread famine and 
death through all our land. He and He 
alone has the power to blast with poverty 
or to bless with prosperity. 

It should do us all good, therefore, 
to read from our new President's 
inaugural, these words. " I assume the 
responsible duties of President of the 
United States, invoking the blessing of 
Almighty God. Our faith teaches there 
is no safer reliance than upon the God of 
our Fathers, who has so singularly favored 
the American people in every natural 
trial and who will not forsake us so long- 
as we obey His commandments and walk 
humbly in His footsteps." It also cheers 
our hearts to hear the manner in which he 
closes his inauguration address. After 
speaking about the need of care and econ- 
omy in National Finance. After showing 
that the best way to maintain credit is to 
pay as we go. After recognizing how 
hard it has been to do this during the past 
four years. After expressing confidence 
in the wisdom and corn-age of the Ameri- 
can people to meet every emergency that 
may arise. After proclaming that we 
should have no citizenship too ignorant to 
understand nor too vicious to appreciate 
the great value and benevolence of our 
institutions and laws and that our gates 
must be promptly and tightly closed upon 
all who come here to make war upon them. 
After announcing that his policy would 
be like that of Washington to cultivate the 
arts of peace rather than the arts of war 
and that the cultivation of this peace should 



PRESIDENT McKINLEY AND PROSPERITY. 



223 



not only be with other nations, but 
amongst ourselves, he repeats the oath 
of his high office administered by the 
Chief Justice. "I will faithfully execute 
the office of President of the United States 
and will to the best of my ability preserve, 
protect and defend the Constitution of the 
United States," and then adds " this is the 
obligation I have reverently taken before 
the Lord most High. To keep it will be 
my single purpose and my constant prayer, 
and I shall confidently rely upon the for- 
bearance and assistance of all the peo])le 
in the discharge of my solemn responsibili- 
ties." It is evident from the emphasis 
our President lays upon the need of Divine 
help that he knows something of the 
Almighty Ruler and of the indispensible 
necessity of His blessing in conducting 
this nation to prosperity. It is equally 
evident that he deems it vitally important 
for the people of the nation to have some- 
thing of the same knowledge. This is in 
harmony with the truth of the text. " Let 
him that glorieth glory in this that he 
knoweth me." There is much important 
knowledge, but this is most important 
" Yada " to know God is the key to lasting 
prosperity. Here revert to our former 
statement every kind of knowledge has its 
own peculiar law of attainment. And we 
cannot know God but by using that partic- 
ular law by which He reveals Himself. 
Many fatal mistakes are made at tins point. 
Many imagine they can know God by 
reading and observing and searching and 
thinking. These are necessary and yet no 
soul ever became acquainted with God by 
these agencies. You may secure an in- 
tellectual idea in these ways but never a 
spiritual conception. God is a pure Spirit, 
and He can only be known by pure spirits. 
Hence the Saviour said " The pure in heart 
shall see God," purity is the one first funda- 
mental quality in conceiving God. No 
matter how acute and clever the world 
may be, if the heart is corrupt you cannot 
know God. Sin of any and every kind 
breeds the gloomy clouds of mystery that 
rise up from the guilty life between you 



and God. These clouds are so dense and 
dark that you cannot penetrate them. 
They are so persistent and continuous that 
no one can penetrate them for you. The 
f rst step toward knowing God is to quit 
sinning. The second step is to begin 
praying. If we " regard iniquity in our 
heart the Lord will not hear us." But if 
we quit sinning and then pray God does 
hear. This is His law. This is the way 
He is to be known and the only way He is 
knowable. The third step is to pray 
through His Son whom He has sent. He 
has made Him the method of approach. 
We must adopt that method else we 
cannot know. He reveals Himself in His 
atoning, advocating Son to the pure, pray- 
ing soul. And the revelation is the most 
magnificent, you then see God in the 
grandeur of His natural magnificence. You 
then know Him in the sjnendor of His 
moral glory. He appears and appeals to 
you in the union of this infinite natural 
power, with His infinite spiritual love. 
You learn that He is the most beautiful 
beneficent and trust-worthy, Being in 
existence. You know you can trust Him 
with the sweetness and simplicity of a 
loving and obedient child. You know 
you can carry to Him all your great and 
little burdens of care and of woe. You 
know that He loves you with a fidelity a 
constancy and a power that ensures His 
everlasting and tenderest providing and 
guiding care. You know Him now to be 
your very own most precious Father who 
loves you more than he loves anything 
else He has made. You knoic Him with 
such a knowledge as shoics you that all 
else He has made He made for you, 
and keeps it for you, [and is preparing 
you for it. You know him in such 
a strong endearing way as convinces 
you that He will never permit any- 
one or anything to injure you in any way 
at any time by any means. In fact you 
know him so really that you become confi- 
dent He is managing now and will forever 
so manage all things that they shall as if 
by sacred confederacy "work together for 



224 



PRESIDENT McKINLEY AND PROSPERITY. 



your good." There is much precious 
knowledge among men. But this is the 
most valuable knowledge of which a 
created being is capable. If you have it 
nourish, cherish, grow in it. If you have it 
not, then seek it " while it may be found." 

Having glanced at the method by which 
we may know power let us now look how 
we may usepoicer. Every kind of power has 
its own method of working. It wont work 
unless you use its method. It will work 
when you do. Water will run the ma- 
chinery but you must turn it on the wheel. 
Electricity will carry your message but 
you must give it an operator and a wire. 
Steam will propel your vessel and draw 
your cars, but vou must give it an engine. 
God will lift this nation to prosperity, but 
you must give Him men. If you can 
get the people to give themselves to God 
all else that is great and good will follow. 
He will take care of the rest. He will 
Avork the nation in all its departments to 
the very highest advantage. He will draw 
it forward and upward to unexampled 
prosperity. He will make each and every 
section successful. He will make the 
farmers blessed and a blessing. He will 
water their fields with the balmy rains of 
Heaven. He will shine upon their farms 
with the goldening Sun until their harvests 
blush in abundance and beauty. He will 
bless them in the fruit of their cattle and 
in the fruit of then* land, in their basket 
and in their store, in their going out and 
coming in He will make them more and 
more the great feeders of the whole people 
from sea to sea and even to the remotest 
rim of the world. He too will make the 
miners blessed and a blessing. He will 
give them access to the vast locked up 
cabinets of His jewels that he has hidden 
for His people among the hills. He will 
be with them as they work their way 
among rocky ribs of earth. He will 
give them here jewels of gold, there nug- 
gets of silver and there gems of precious 
stones. And they shall come forth to 
praise that Father who is so good, affluent 
and kind. 



He will make the mechanics blessed and 
a blessing. He will be with them in their 
factories and in their studies. He will 
with them plough the billows of the sea 
and with them ride on their steam chariots 
through the land. He will be with them 
in their inventions and give them a firmer 
grip and a vaster control in harnessing the 
horses of nature to alleviate human toil. 
He will expand their intellect and grad- 
ually, as they shall be able to bear, reveal 
to them how to neutralize space and make 
the most of time. He will give them such 
skill in invention that we shall no longer 
envy the eagle in its flight, nor the lark as 
it rises singing toward the sun. He will 
enable them not only to navigate the seas 
and girdle the earth with words, but to 
navigate the air and yoke to their ships 
the howling storms. The winds and waves 
shall no more control and frighten men. 
Men shall control and shall yet laugh in 
the face of the fierce typhoon and mount 
his wildest wing and soar with him in 
safety afar. Is not he giving even now 
these wonder-working powers to his 
children. And note you only to his 
children in Christian lands. And to the 
truest Christain country will he give His 
most triumphant power over and posses- 
sion of the greatest forces of nature. 

He will bless our national financiers and 
make them a blessing. There will be 
plenty of work and plenty of wages. The 
silverites shall not vex the goldites, nor 
the goldites the silverites We shall 
have money, but it will be the money of 
a nation whose poor have been emanci- 
pated, whose rich have been evangelized, 
whose people are happy and whose " God 
is the Lord." 

He will bless and make our educators a 
blessing. They shall not only teach the 
beauties of literature, the attractions of art, 
the utility of science, the antiquity of 
geology, the splendors of astronomy; but 
also, the surpassing magnificence of that 
Great Governor, who ordereth the golden 
gallaxies of countless worlds. 

And even our politicians shall He bless 



PRESIDENT McKINLET AWT) PROSPERITY 



225 



and make a blessing. They shall have 
emerged in these coming days from the 
law poltroonery of personal preferment to 
the lofty ideal of Gladstonian Statesmanship. 
They shall rule our municipalities not from 
love of pelf but from love of people. They 
shall assemble in our Senates not from 
love of plunder but from love of country. 
They shall like Joseph in Egypt, prove 
above wickedness and like Daniel in Baby- 
lon, face the lions rather than be traitorous 
to God. 

The preachers too, shall be blessed, and 
be made a blessing pouring out the crystal 
truth from the Sermon on the Mount. The 
streams of that sermon shall flow through 
all the land and the thirsty millions slake 
their thirst from its limpid rills that cool 
and refresh the world. The singers too, 
shall be blessed and be made a blessing. 
Instead of singing from love of praise or 
position, or gold, they shall sing those 
sweetest Zion songs with such floods of 
feeling melody as shall melodize into one, 
the hearts of men around the green hills 
far away where the waiting Saviour stands. 
Ah, my friends, when that time comes, 
then we shall know how to use God's 
power, not here and there as persons, but 
throughout the Republic as a people. Then 
that supreme supernal power will pour itself 
into every section of our citizenship. The 
people everywhere shall be bound with 
golden strands to the throne of God. God 
will come down in His love and mercy upon 
our landscapes, and our farms, and bless 
remotest hut in farthest wilderness. God 
will come down in love and power upon 
the industrial towns and cities, and bless 
all the people with the blessings of 
kings and queens. God will use our farm- 
ers, and our miners, and our financiers, and 
our mechanics, and our laborers, and our 
store-keepers, and our merchants, and our 
bankers, and our educators, and our politi- 
cians, and our preachers, and singers all to 
bless, cheer, and comfort each other. The 
dream of the Entopian socialist will be far 
more than realized. The theories of Ed- 
ward Bellamy will be outdistanced, the 



dreams of the London Emancipation Soci- 
eties will be transcendently surpassed. The 
highest hopes of the best and highest op- 
timists will be outshone ; pessimism will 
be buried, because sin is slain ; poverty 
will be garroted because Christ is crowned; 
suffering will be crucified because holiness 
is enthroned. And God the Power of 
Power; the Love of Love; the King of 
Kings; and Lord of Lords will rule over a 
people who are free. Free not only politi- 
cally, but free spiritually; free from the 
devil, free from sin, free from suffering, free 
from hate and harshness, free from drink 
and dissipation, free ! free! free! ! free ! ! ! 

The way then to use GooVs power is to 
let Him use us for whatever He will. He 
will make no mistake. Blundering belongs 
not to Him; power does. Power of wis- 
dom, power of knowledge, power of truth, 
power of law, power of nature, power of 
love, power of life, power of immortality, 
power of immensity, power of eternity ; 
power! power! ! power! ! ! And when 
that power fills us, thrills us, guides us, in- 
spires us, dominates us, as a nation, and as 
persons we shall have such prosperity, as 
persons and as a nation, as no people ever 
had before us. 

III. And this is the knowledge and use 
of God's power in which we are to glory. 
"Let him that glorieth, glory in this." The 
mistake men make is that they glory in 
other things. They glory m their wisdom 
and knowledge ; they glory in their strength 
of body or estate. 

They glory in their riches, honors, luxu- 
ries. But the command is "Let not the 
wise man glory in his wisdom ; neither let 
the mighty man glory in his might ; let not 
the rich man glory in his riches ; but let 
him that glorieth glory in this, that he un- 
derstandeth and knoweth me that I am the 
Lord which exerciseth loving kindness, 
judgment and righteousness in the earth 
for in these things I delight." 

How sad it is to see Christians so-called, 
who never feel the thrill of this glory. Is 
it not wonderful to think of ? The poor, 
worldly fellow who has nothing to glory in, 



226 PRESIDENT McKINLET AND PROSPERITY. 



does most of the glorying ; and the Christ- 
ian who has everything to glory in, does 
most of the grumbling. A complaining 
Christian is one of the strangest curiosities 
under the sun, and a rejoicing sinner is an- 
other. The one is going to heaven crying. 
The other is going to hell laughing ; strange 
isn't it ? It is a great proof of the depth 
of the depravity of human nature. No- 
body should be so sad as the man who is 
going to hell. Nobody should be so glad 
as the man who is going to Heaven. Now 
I want to cut you loose, ye mournful Chris- 
tians, from your many sorrows. Think of 
this for a moment. You know your Father 
is the wisest, mightiest, richest, of all Be- 
ings. You know all His wisdom, power, 
and wealth are for you. You know He 
is full of loving kindness and judicial skill, 
and absolute righteousness. You know He 
delights in these things. And now what 
does He want you to do ? He wants you 
to glory in what He glories, to delight in 
what He delights. You can well afford to 
do so. He is well worth glorying in. Why 
then don't we glory in Him? When I 
shout hallelujah, in my joy, you folks look 
at me as if I were beside myself ; you look 
as though some strange thing had happened 
unto me. I do wish the same strange 
thing would happen to a thousand or two 
of you. If we had two thousand more hal- 
lelujah people here we could take Boston ; 
and Boston could take Massachusetts, and 
Massachusetts could take America, and 
America could take the world. Some of 
you get happy and give a few shouts, and 
somebody that was yelling in the theatre 
the other night over nothing, tells you to 
be quiet, and you are as mute as mice for a 
month. When I depend on you to brace up 
a meeting with the joy of God, you are not 
to be found. You are something like a 



billy goat I had when I was a boy. That 
billy goat was as good as it could be for a 
while. Some other fellows would come 
around and tease the goat, and then the next 
time I went to take him out he would rear 
up on his hind legs and knock me over. 
Some of you act just like that billy goat. 
God likes a soul that can be trusted. A 
soul that is so real, and sincere, and true, 
and constant in its possession of the Divine 
power that it "rejoices evermore prays 
without ceasing and in everything gives 
thanks." 

A soul that is ready at any moment 
night or day, to glory in what it knows of 
God. There are a few such rare radiant 
souls on the earth. Let us raise up a gen- 
eration of them ; let us raise up an army 
of men and women here who will take this 
text for their motto. Who will glory in 
knowing God, who will glory in His wis- 
dom, and riches, and love ; who will glory 
in His kindness and judgment, and right- 
eousness ; who will glory in these because 
God glories in them; who will become 
germ centers of holy glory ; who will send 
raying out this glory through this Temple, 
and this city, and this land. Do not think 
this is impossible ; it is possible. If you 
glory in God He will make you glorious. 
He wants you to delight yo urself in Him and 
"He will bring it to pass." No bad Chris- 
tian is a good citizen ; no good christian is 
a bad citizen. The people who hold this 
nation together are the good Christian peo- 
ple. The Omission Christians are deceiv- 
ers ; the Mission Christians are achievers. 
It is these achievers who are our real na- 
tional guards. President McKinley knows 
this. Let us raise ten battalions here. If 
you will volunteer, come and give me your 
hand. Amen. 



Church* 



•' My Church."— Matt. xvi:18. 



CHRIST calls His people His Church 
only on this and one other occa- 
sion. He uses the word ekklesia, 
from e/t, out of, and kaleo, to call. 

The root significance, is, therefore, His 
called-out ones, like men called out to bat- 
tle. He speaks of His cause most fre- 
quently as a Basileia, a kingdom. 

Under this title he mentions it many 
times. And it is under this name we 
obtain the best idea of its mission, and its 
majesty. 

Church, however, is the expression 
most commonly used by men in speaking 
of His realm. The reason for this is pro- 
bably to prevent confusion, as there are 
many other so-called kingdoms in the 
world. But whatever appellation is given 
His great undertaking, its nature, duty, and 
destiny are all clearly defined by the Mas- 
ter Himself. 

I. Then let us look at its nature. That 
nature is the same as the nature of Christ 
Himself. As the vine to the branches, He 
is to His members. What He is, His peo- 
ple are. As He is One with the Father, 
so they are one with Him. " That they 
may all be one even as Thou Father art in 
me, and I in Thee, that they also may be 
one in us." — John 17:21. This brings 
before us a most magnificent vision of 
hope. It also suggests a specific quality 
in the Christian. The particular quality 
that makes the Christian is of the Christ 
genus. A full analysis of it would lead 
into long-drawn discussions of genus and 
species. This we must avoid in the pul- 



pit. Still, a glimpse or two may afford 
illustration. 

Here are a number of seeds. You plant 
them. One brings forth wheat, another 
barley, another oats, another oaks, another 
elms, others thistles, nettles, brambles, 
briers, and so on. Nature is full of these 
differentiations. Every seed produces a 
crop after its own image, with uniform 
and eternal persistence. The differentrator 
is in the seed itself. You cannot discover 
it. You cannot define it. The finest 
microscope may detect the plant in outline 
in the seed. But the power that put that 
outline there is a mystery. You may push 
the thought back, and call it Infinite spec- 
ialized productivity — God. You collect a 
number of eggs. You may try your utmost 
to make duck eggs hatch chickens, or 
goose eggs turkeys, or partridge eggs 
ostriches ; but it will be all in vain. Each 
egg insists on bringing forth after its kind, 
and you cannot change the insistence, 
except by neglect, or destruction of the 
egg itself. 

Mr. Darwin has discoursed discriminat- 
ingly about specialized forms in his "Ori- 
gin of Species." Mr. Herbert Spencer 
has written cleverly on homogeneity, 
branching out into all the ramifications of 
heterogeneity as set forth in the sociolog- 
ical history of man. Many others, as Carl 
Yogt, Charles Lyell, John Lubbock, Prof. 
Huxley, Prof. Hackel, and Charles Bell 
have written profusely on naturalistic- 
problems ; but not one of them has shown 
us, and not one of their disciples can show 



232 



CHURCH. 



us, that specific quality that causes things 
to differ. They do teach why things dif- 
fer. But none have yet made known 10/iat 
makes things differ. And all that has 
been written by the most industrious and 
sagacious naturalists and biologists, pro- 
perly understood, stands forth today as 
majestic proofs that man is a specialty, 
passing out of the infinite past into the 
infinite future, with a purpose behind him, 
and before him, and in him. That while 
in physical regards there are many 
things in common between him and 
the lower animals, as in their proxi- 
mate homologous physical structure, yet 
all acknowledge there are great gaps 
that no links connect, and mighty 
chasms no bridges span. Rightly inter- 
l^reted, the naturalists have thrown a 
Hood of light on the surface of things, 
which are beginning to help now the 
thinker to penetrate the heart of things. 
That heart has not yet been reached by 
any mind. But that heart is being reached 
by many hearts. It takes an eye to see an 
eye. It takes a heart to find a heart. And 
it is with the heart we find our Father. 
Every thing persists, and will persist, in 
producing its kind, and only its kind. 
Take this universal principle of the law of 
life and apply it to the Church. As all 
things in nature produce according to 
their differentiated nature, so Christ pro- 
duces a spjec ies of human nature like Him- 
self. If Henry Drummond had called his 
book " Spiritual Law in the Natural 
World," and written from that view point, 
his work would have been a much brighter 
blessing than has his " Natural Law in the 
Spiritual World." This title puts the 
thing caused before the thing that causes ; 
the less as leader of the greater, and so 



has caused confusion. Now, when we say 
everything is distinguished from every- 
thing else by an infinitely intelligent and 
all-prevailing, and all-enduring Spirit, we 
are getting at something that can help us. 
And when we say there is a specializing, 
differentiating power in Christ that trans- 
mits itself mysteriously to those born into 
His Church, we are stating a strictly com- 
mon, scientific fact. When a human being 
is thus specialized, he receives a new nat- 
ure by engraf tment ; he belongs to Christ. 
He belongs to no other. He is to be like 
no other. He is to obey no other. He is 
to be like his progenitor, his sire, begotten 
anew by Him by inoculative implantation. 
Christ is the tree. We are inserted in 
Him by grafting. A number of such per- 
sons grouped together for engrafting pur- 
poses is called a Church. If persons are 
grouped together, therefore, for any other 
purpose, they may be a society, a club, or 
a conclave ; but they are not a Church. 
We are approaching a period when some- 
thing else is being insidiously substituted 
for the Christly genus. The genera must 
remain like the genus, else the genera 
decays from the generic trunk. And as 
there were agencies of degeneracy in other 
ages, so there are such agencies now. 
They come in slowly, slyly, unawares, 
oftentimes professing to be angels of light. 
Take, for instance, the Chautauqua Circle 
movement — the socialistic side of the camp 
meeting movement. The one is stamped 
with the intellectual genus ; the other with 
the socialistic genus. If continued, they 
will bring about, first, intellectual and 
socialistic activity ; but they will also bring- 
in spiritualistic coldness, apathy, blindness, 
bondage, and death. As Methodists, we 
have been moving up the hill. We should 



CHURCH. 



233 



not forget that the way of naturism and 
the devil is to march down again. We 
should also remember that Satan is sly 
enough to raise up plausible leaders for 
the downward movement. Men who will 
laugh and explain away the old-time genus 
of Jesus ; men who will, perhaps even from 
lofty places, speak slightingly of any real 
out-and-out movement for the salvation of 
others, just because it does not comport 
with their narrow notions of proprieties and 
dignities — such are the advance agents of 
collapse. It behooves us to inquire what 
" icily regular and splendidly null " dig- 
nities have ever done to produce the Christ 
genus in men. The same inquiry should 
be made concerning all other societies that 
make a fetich of some particular secular 
specialty. I need not begin to enumer- 
ate. " Their name is legion, for they are 
many." That there is good in them would 
be foolish to deny. That their care of 
their members, of their sick, their dying 
and dead is all very Avell as far as it goes. 
But it does not go far enough. It is like a 
bridge that only goes half across the river, 
and dumps its victims in the floods. It 
lacks that vital, specific life-love which is 
only found in the " called-out ones " of 
Christ. No matter how near a metal 
approaches gold in appearance, if it is not 
gold its appearance is deceptive. And no 
matter how near you approach Christ 
with your societies, if you have not His 
specific, spiritual genus within you, you 
might as well be a million miles away. 
This shows us the great need of seriously 
considering our 

II Point of importance, the duty of 
those who belong to the Church. That 
duty is not clear in the light of the actions 
of church members. Some are hot ; some 



are cold ; some are consistent ; some 
inconsistent ; some faithful ; some faith- 
less. And so we will not ask you to look 
atjyour duty in the light of each other. 

But we pray you to consider most 
intensely, clearly, and constantly your 
duty in the light of Christ. He is the 
light ; let us look at ourselves in that 
light. The only way We can come into 
His light is by His Spirit, and His Word. 
Praying, therefore, for His Holy Spirit to 
shine upon the words of Jesus, and to 
implant them deeply in our hearts, let us 
approach His very own words. I will not 
delay you with the words of His prophets, 
nor of His Apostles, but just His own 
words concerning what we should be and 
do. 

I. Notice, what we should be. There 
have been many answers given to this ques- 
tion. Christ's answer to it is different 
from every other. It is the only answer 
worth heeding. It is original, vital, 
fundamental. It lies along the line we 
have laid down. It isgermain to the idea 
of a new and mystic genus, or life type. 
It proclaims to us that reformation in 
exterior manners, expansion in intellectual 
acquirements, elevation in even ethical 
and moral refinements, and reformations 
do not reinstate us in spiritual sanity and 
safety. By nature we are so bad that 
Christ has had to take root ground with 
us. He has had to establish a regenera- 
tive system. He has had to undertake the 
actual re-creation of us. He, therefore, 
tells us in most unhesitating and emphatic 
terms that " truly, truly, we must be born 
again." He reiterates this, and impresses 
it as the strategic and vital point of sup- 
reme importance, on which everything 
else hinges, by telling us to " marvel not " 



234 



CHURCH. 



at it, for " we must be born again." He 
establishes a gulf between natural and 
spiritual birth. He says, " that which is 
born of the flesh is flesh," and " that which 
is born of the Spirit is Spirit." He estab- 
lishes here the need of the new genus, or 
kind of nature, which comes from special- 
ized spiritual creation. There must be the 
interjection of the Holy Spirit into our 
nature, and the intersection of that nature 
into Christ. Then the Christ genus is 
given us. His life flows into us. Our life 
flows into Him. We are made one with 
Him ; He one with us. Sometimes this 
re-birth is brought about by the instru- 
mentality of a friend ; sometimes by the 
pleading of a preacher ; sometimes by the 
prayers of the brethren ; sometimes by the 
singing of a hymn ; but by whatever 
instrumentality, it is ever by Divine 
agency, and always produces the Christ 
type. It is evident from this that the true 
churchman must be a re-born man. He 
must be a new spiritual man. He must be 
an other- world man. He must be a Christ- 
man. The Christ specific is in him. It 
reaches all his being. It pervades all his 
emotions. It permeates all his intellections. 
It leavens all his physical forces. It domi- 
nates all his plans, purposes, words, man- 
ners, and actions. Such a man is a new 
creature. "Old things pass away, all 
things become new." How strikingly we 
see this illustrated in the testimonies and 
lives of His new converts. How common 
it is for one of you to rise and say, " I 
know I am a Christian because the evil 
things I once loved I now hate, and the 
good things I once hated I now love." 
We have scores and hundreds of these 
"living epistles " among us. And we need 
no stronger evidence that Christ is in this 



Temple than such lives as many of you 
are living, and such experiences as many 
of you express. And if there be any of 
you in doubt about your spiritual sound- 
ness and safety, the remedy is here. The 
forces, the machinery, so to speak, are 
here waiting to engraft you into Jesus, 
who is the new Life. When so engrafted, 
you shall feel the flow of His new Life 
through all your being, and from the land 
of the alien you will come and lift up 
your hearts, and sing : 

Arise, my soul, arise ; 

Shake off" thy guilty fears ; 
The bleeding Sacrifice 

In my behalf appears ; 
Before the throne my Surety stands, 
My name is written on His hands. 

He ever lives above, 

For me to intercede; 
His all-redeeming love, 

His precious blood, to plead; 
His blood atoned for all our race, 
And sprinkles now the throne of grace. 

Five bleeding wounds he bears, 

Received on Calvary , 
They pour effectual prayers, 

They strongly plead for me : 
"Forgive him, forgive," they cry, 
"Nor let that ransomed sinner die." 

The Father hears him pray, 

His dear annointed One : 
He cannot turn away 

The presence of His Son; 
His Spirit answers to the blood, 
And tells me I am born of God. 

My God is reconciled ; 

His pardoning voice I hear : 
He owns me for his child ; 

I can no longer fear : 
With confidence I now draw nigh, 
And, " Father, Abba, Father," cry. 

So now you see what a church member 
should be — a happy child of God, made such 
by the inter j ection of the Holy S pirit into the 



CHURCH. 



285 



life, and by the grafting of that life in 
Christ. 

2. Now let us see what such a church 
member should do. There will be many 
privileged, and peculiar, and delicate du- 
ties for you to do. As soon as it is known 
you are a true Child of God your ser- 
vices will be in demand. The real child of 
God is never at a loss for business. If I 
had ten thousand of you, I could give you 
all work and wages. But there are two cen- 
tral things that the Saviour specializes. He 
knew you would in Him receive a special- 
ized nature, and, therefore, He gives you 
two specialized commands. The first looks 
God-ward. The second looks man-ward. 
The doing of the first is only possible to 
the new nature. The doing of the second 
is proof you have that nature. 

a. The first thing you are to do is to 
" Love the Lord your God, with all your 
heart, and soul, and mind, and strength." 
This you can do when you see God. You 
can see God from the pure heart that 
comes through the Christ genus. When 
you see him you cannot but admire, adore, 
and love Him. You are so re-made that 
you admire what is admirable, adore what 
is adorable, and love what is lovable. God 
will then be seen by you to be most 
admirable, adorable, and lovable. When 
once you see Him as such it will be as 
natural for you to love Him with all your 
life as it is for the light to flow from a 
luminous centre. Your mind will be filled 
with reasons for love. Your heart will be 
filled with affections of love. Your strength 
will be stored with the forces of love. You 
will then find yourself in line with the 
highest, most beautiful, most powerful, 
and most loving of beings. The experience 
will thrill you with joy, satisfy you with 



rapture, and fill you with peace. And the 
beauty of all is that the world cannot rob 
you of these great blessings. Satan can- 
not despoil you of them, and nothing in 
either earth or sea, or sky can deprive you of 
your most precious possession. Your for- 
tune for eternity is made. Your destiny 
for glory is fixed. Your heritage of bound- 
less wealth — endless privilege — and ever- 
lasting happiness, is all securely vested in 
the safe deposit of Almighty Love. 

b. The second command of Christ to 
you, as a part of the Church, is to " love 
your neighbor as yourself." 

A certain amount of self-love is needed 
for self-existence. You know how much 
you love yourself — how much you love 
your own welfare ; how much you love 
your reputation, your character, your pro- 
perty, your children ; how much you love 
your position, your preferment, your 
well-being in body, mind, soul, and estate. 
Now take the measure of that self-love of 
thine, and love your neighbor up to that 
measure. Some natures are very strong, 
and some very weak in their affections. 
But the proper measure of your love for 
others is the love you bear yourself. 

It is to be remarked that, as a rule, you 
like yourselves quite well. I see few of 
you lacking in the grace of self-love. I 
am quite willing you should not love me 
any more than you love yourselves, quite 
willing you should not love your neighbors 
nor eash other, more than with the same 
very careful affections I perceive you have 
for yourselves. When collection day comes 
round this strong self-love is seen in a 
quiet way. You may have been singing 
like larks ; but when we call for money to 
help the needy, and evangelize your neigh- 
bors, some of you are quiet as mice. Why 



236 CHURCH. 



is this ? Is it not because your love for 
yourselves is greater than your love for 
your neighbors? 

A man's love for his neighbor is seen 
by what he is willing to do, and to give, 
for the sake of that neighbor. A certain 
man was travelling down from the 
rich city of Jerusalem by the steep, dan- 
gerous road to Jericho. He was attacked 
by a gang of robbers who stripped him, 
and wounded him, and left him half dead. 
A priest came along, looked at the man 
in the pool of his own blood, and passed 
by on the other side. Next there came 
one of the historic sons of Levi, and he 
swept past, also, on the other side. But a 
despised, ignored, ostracised Samaritan 
happened that way. And when he saw 
the wounded man he had compassion on 
him. He went up to him, and bound up 
his bleeding wounds, poured upon them 
the easing oil, and the stimulating wane, 
set him on his own beast, brought him to 
the hotel, took care of him, paid for his 
board, and engaged rooms and nursing for 
him till he came again. That was love of 
the Christ type. It means help for the 
helpless, care for the w^ounded, nursing for 
the sick, life for the dying. You can meas- 
ure the amount of the Christ genus you 
have by the amount you are willing to 
suffer, sacrifice, say, do, and give, for the 
sake of the lost. He suffered everything, 
sacrificed everything, said everything, did 
everything, gave everything, to save you. 
You in turn are to be so impregnated with 
His life genus that you will do the same 
to save others. 

c. This brings us to the last great com- 
mand of Christ to His Church members, 
" Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
Gospel to every creature." This is w T hat 
you are now here for. You have a much 
nobler mission than simply to work, and 
eat, and drink, and die. The most majestic 
mission in all this universe is committed to 
your trust. All you have may be a treas- 
ure; but it is also a trust. It 
may be a temporary possession ; but 
it is also a temporary trust. The 



manner in which you use that trust proves 
whether you are of the world type, or of 
the Christ type. If your use of your trust 
demonstrates yon are of the world, you 
shall perish w r ith the world. If your use 
of your trust proves you are of the Christ 
type, you shall triumph with Christ. This 
is fair. This is logical. The demand of 
your Master is, if you propose to belong to 
Him, is that you be like Him ; that you live 
like Him ; that you are possessed by the 
same master passion that dominated Him. 
That Master passion in Him ever w r as to 
save the perishing. Xow, let us be honest. 
Let us come down to business, and 
look at this vital matter squarely 
and fairly. How many of you are 
really panting with a passionate love 
to save your lost brothers and sisters? 
How many of you feel that the one thing 
you have to do is to save people by the 
Gospel ? How many of you really and 
truly make this your meat and your drink? 
I do not ask, how many of you are church 
members ? nor how many of you are Sun- 
day School workers? nor how many of you 
are Christian Endeavorers ? nor how many 
of you enjoy prayer meeting, and class 
meeting, and preaching services, and Sab- 
bath observance, and Bible study? These 
are all very well. But are you aware you 
can be a church member, and enjoy all 
these, and step through them all straight 
down to hell ? The question I ask you is, 
how many of you make the rescue of sin- 
slain men and women the main, moving, 
working motive of your life ? Has that 
idea really yet entered and taken posses- 
sion of you? Has it really occurred to 
you that every breath, and every thought, 
and every feeling, and every plan, and 
purpose, and deed, and word, and gift of 
your being is to be used to save some- 
body? If it has not, no matter what else 
has, you have not yet gotten the Christ 
stamp, the Divine brand, which constitutes 
you of the same kind Christ is. I have 
often been distressed to see how T slow 
church members are to respond to this 
deep-root idea, this central idea, of Chris- 



CHURCH. 



237 



tianity. I have sometimes sat and won- 
dered what kind of teaching church mem- 
bers have had who seem to look upon 
church life just as upon any other kind of 
socialistic life ; that that life consists in 
having a good time among themselves, 
good prayer meetings, good class meetings, 
good preaching, and praise services, and 
that that was the end. My brothers, let 
me give you the truth. These things are 
not the end at all. They are only the 
means that are to be made to work toward 
the end. Churches are only the instruc- 
tion places, the drill rooms, that are to 
prepare for the duties we have before us 
in the world. 

It was in a large hotel, after breakfast. 
The waiters all came in a body to the 
retired room, where I was sitting. The 
head waiter stood up, and the men gath- 
ered round him. He gave them a talk on 
how to set a table, and on how to approach 
a guest, and on how to serve a dinner, sup- 
per, and breakfast. Now, if those waiters 
had all gone to their homes, and not to 
their places in the dining room, they 
would have been doing what a vast num- 
ber of church members do. But that would 
have brought about their dismission. The 
hotel-keeper wants waiters to wait, ser- 
vants to serve. That's their business. The 
lecture service was only a preparation for 
that service. And so all the prayer, praise, 
and preaching services of this Temple are 
only preparations for service, and not the 
service itself. The service itself is feeding 
those who are famishing for want of the 
bread of life. The service itself is giving 
the water of life to those who are thirsting 
for salvation. The service itself consists 
in placing the rich, refreshing Gospel in 
suitable portions, in suitable manner, before 
perishing sinners, so that they will eat, 
drink, and live. I said church services are 
drill services. This is the practical pur- 
pose they are to serve in church members. 
They are not simply to keep alive the 
sparks of grace in you. They are not sim- 
ply to comfort, and cheer you. They are 
to equip you. They are to furnish you 



with the Divine armor. They are to gird 
on you the girdle of truth, sandals of sal- 
vation, breastplate of righteousness, helmet 
of salvation, shield of faith. Having given 
you this defensive armature, they are to 
place in your hand the one aggressive 
weapon, the Word of God. They are 
to teach you how to march and counter- 
march, how to advance, and how to 
attack, and how to continue to fight till 
the enemy surrenders. But having done 
this for you, your duty begins. You are 
to look around for the devil, and wherever 
you see him hit him. Hit him hard. Hit 
him till he cries for quarter, and retires. 
Your business is to fight him off the face 
of the earth. Your duty is to fight him 
out of every soul he is slaughtering by 
unbelief, by the saloon, by the house of 
death — by the breach of any command of 
God. Oh, but you say, " I don't like to 
fight. I like peace, and love, and joy, and 
rest." And so do I. But this is a fight 
for peace, and love, and joy, and rest. In 
this sense Christ was a great fighter. In 
this sense you are to be great fighters. 
You are to be game in the battle. You 
are to remember you are attacking trait- 
ors, invaders, bandits, outlaws, whom God 
Himself has outlawed, and that God is 
ever with you in the battle That there is 
no such thing possible as defeat, and that 
there is " no discharge in this war." Other 
battles come and go ; but this is to go on 
forever, till this world is rescued from the 
wiles of Satan, and the fangs of sin. Com- 
rades, the battle is on. " Well," you say, 
" let it be on ; I am in the drill room ! ! ! " 

Out in the West, during the Civil War, 
a colonel was mustering a regiment. The 
men met night after night in the drill 
room, and practised for the field. When 
the morning came for them to march for the 
front there were five men missing. The col- 
onel sent down to the drill room to see if the 
drill-master knew of their whereabouts. 
The messenger found the men in the drill 
room, fencing, marching, and counter- 
marching at a great rate. He told them 
they were needed on the field. They said, 



238 



CHURCH. 



" Tell the colonel we are having a good 
enough time here ; we won't go to the 
front." What could that colonel do but 
cut them off his roll, as cowards, unworthy 
of place in the hearts of their countrymen. 
Now, my hearers, what worse were they, 
as patriotic soldiers, than you as Christian 
soldiers, if you are not willing to go to the 
fight, and take the field. That field is the 
world. It is the duty and privilege of 
every Christian warrior to capture some 
part of that field for Christ. He has 
included it all in His plan of campaign. 
There is no human being for whom He 
has not died. There is no discharge to 
the Church till He " sees of the travail of 
his soul, and is satisfied," because the 
whole world is saved. This leads up to 
our 

III point — the destiny of those who in 
Christ do their duty. We sometimes look 
on young and promising persons, and say, 
" What a glorious future you have before 
you." It is well to place the grandeur of 
human possibility before the young. There 
is a healthful tonic in it that braces noble 
souls to attempt noble things. But what- 
ever may be the future destiny of persons 
favored by heredity, by fortune, and by 
personal charms, there is no glory compar- 
able with the glory of the destiny of 
Christ's " called out ones " who are faith- 
ful to Him all through the fray. If one 
could offer you the Czarship of the Rus- 
sias, or the thronedom of Great Britain, or 
the kinghood of all this planet, it would be 
a poor, pitiable portion, contrasted with 
Kinghood in Jesus Christ. This kinghood 
is what is presented to every true 
church man. This queenhood is what 
is conferred on every real church 
woman. Think of it. Take a faint inven- 
tor of its privileges and powers. It 
delivers you from all poverty, and dis- 
grace, and pain, and care. It separates 



you forever from sin, and Satan, and suf- 
fering, and sorrow. It buries in oblivion 
all the dark past, and bids you be no 
longer troubled about the sins you have 
committed. It takes you, and stamps you 
as the Lord's own child. It gives you the 
badge, the pledge, of Sonship in your soul. 
It gives you the identic Jesus, the specific 
type of Christ's own life in your heart. 
It makes you an heir to the manner born, 
heir of omnipotence, of omnipresence, of 
omniscience, of infinity, and eternity. It 
makes you an heir of infinite holiness, 
truth, righteousness, justice, goodness, and 
love. It makes you an heir to all the 
material wealth, and physical grandeur 
packed away in the boundless cabinets 
of the celestial spheres. All the 
riches of the sea, and the earth, 
and the sun, and the planets, and the 
stars, and the sun systems of the glorious 
sky belong to you. But there are more 
priceless treasures thine ! All the lovely 
spirits that have gone up from earth ; all 
the beautiful souls that have swept through 
this world, trailing clouds of glory in their 
train, belong to you. All the sweet sing- 
ers, true prophets, real Christians, stamped 
with the same stamp, bearing the same 
marks of the Lord Jesus, are thine. And 
that immortal youth and beauty, which 
will go on increasing in ever-excelling 
splendor, are thine. And last, and great- 
est, and best of all, that Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, Who, in Their unity of oper- 
ancy, have loved you, and lifted you, and 
blessed you with all these boundless bless- 
ings, are thine. Is there anything left to 
be desired ? Name another thing you can 
wish that is good for you. It is all 
included in the promises and provisions. 
It seems as though your Saviour speaks to 
you and says : You have the largest, 
richest and best forever and ever, O " My 
Church ! " " My Church ! !" " My Church! ! ! " 



Lessons of the Big Fight* 



Fight the Good Fight of faith ; lay hold on Eternal Life."— i Tim. vi : 12. 



IF Homer were here, he would speak an 
epic. This is not the age of Homer, 
and so I speak a dirge. Doleful must 
be the feelings of any soul that in true 
light contemplates the scene. The air for 
years has been polluted with cries of the 
coining contest. As the time approaches, 
the prurient press takes up the theme. 
The sound resounds from sea to sea. Won- 
der and expectancy thrill sixty million 
souls. Cities pour out their fistic wor- 
shippers. Pugilistic patrons grow impa- 
tient for the hour to come. At length, 
beneath the shade of the Sierras, the arena 
is reared, the ring is formed, and two 
human fiends, stripped for the fray, engage 
in the encounter. Americans hold their 
breath ; the world waits the issue ; the tele- 
graph is subsidized ; the crowds watch 
the bulletins, and at length the news 
arrives that one of the brutes has beaten 
the other into helplessness. Humanity has 
again been disgraced. That is all ; much 
ado about worse than nothing. It is the 
poor world's way. The big fight, so-called, 
is over. It has been bad in what- 
ever way you look at it — bad for the 
fighters ; bad for the backers ; bad 
for the country ; bad for the city ; bad for 
the young ; bad for the old ; bad for 
everybody. And yet out of this bad fight 
it is easy to learn important lessons for the 
Good Fight. For the children of this 
world are still wiser in their generation 
than some of the children of light. In that 
Good Fight, thank God, we are engaged. 
It is not a fight to kill men ; but to save 
them. It is not a fight for money, nor for 



fame, nor for position. It is a fight for 
truth and for principle, and for God. It is 
a fight of which we have reason to be 
proud. It is a fight for the good of the 
creature, and glory of the Creator. It is 
the longest, strongest, biggest, and best 
fight ever started in this strange and 
mystic universe. It is a fight that is good 
in its nature, methods, and results ; good 
for the body, mind and spirit ; good for 
the fighter, the family, and the nation ; 
good for this world, and the entire crea- 
tion. And yet such is our poor, pitiable 
blindness that we have to stoop to look at 
the bad fight to get suitable lessons for 
the Good Fight. St. Paul, with all his spir- 
itual genius, drew lessons for holy con- 
tests from carnal contestants. He followed 
his Master in drawing his illustrations 
from things around him to illustrate things 
above him. We but do the same. It is 
enough that the servant do as his Master 
did. The lessons from the Nevada fight 
will now be placed before us. As they 
pass in illustrative form, let us apply them 
to ourselves, not to others. Let them 
make us better, bigger, more victorious 
fighters. W e are now i n the thick of this 
life's battle. It will soon be all over. The 
results will never pass awa}' ; they will be 
an heritage forever. Let us plead and 
implore that we may each secure such 
impulses as shall enable us more valiantly 
than ever to " fight the Good Fight of 
faith, and lay hold on eternal life." 

I. The Nevada fight teaches us to begin 
our battle early. The Australian, who won 
the victory, began when he was but a boy. 



244 



LESSONS OF THE BIG FIGHT. 



That is the time to begin to fight for 
Jesus. There are many sad blunders made 
by putting off till stiffened in the service 
of sin by age, and habit. The great fighters 
of this world begin early. The great musi- 
cians, the great philosophers, the great 
statesmen, the great writers, the great 
preachers, begin early. The earlier, as a 
rule, the better. It is easy to see why this 
is so. If you learn as you grow up, the 
thing you learn becomes a natural part of 
you. All the forces of your frame, all the 
faculties of your mind, all the affections of 
your heart, grow up around the object for 
which you fight. They stand by it. They 
are a part of it. It is a part of them. It 
is like a second nature, so interwoven with 
the first that they become inseparable. 
The one will live and die for the other. 
They grow up together like David and 
Jonathan. Their mutual love is insepar- 
able. And when you reach maturity, they 
are a united, solidified product. They 
form a stalwart giant of personality that is 
superb and kingly. When such a nature 
moves in battle, it moves mightily. It is 
a composite, cemented together in every 
part like some great forest oak that roots 
itself more firmly in the face of the hurri- 
cane. Beginning early not only get all 
your nature into line, but also all your 
time. Each moment, hour, day, week, 
weaves fresh power into your life. Each 
year adds a grander girth to your char- 
acter as a fighter. It gives longer reach to 
your arm ; more skilful precision to your 
mind ; mightier momentum to your deeds ; 
and completer charm to your movement. 
Ah, children of the veterans of God, sad is 
the mistake you make when you act on 
the postponing policy. I can read your 
naughty hearts. I know what you say 



within by what you do without. You say, 
" The battle for righteousness is all very 
well, but not just now. I want to see the 
world. I want to know what is going on 
behind the scenes. I want a little while 
to sow my wild oats." Yes ; and by the 
time you are satisfied sowing wild oats, 
there will be a harvest of ruin round you 
that will bear you down to damnation. 
You will then have lost your love for the 
" Good Fight." Your love for truth, for 
principle, for character, shall have van- 
ished. The good angels shall have fied. 
And around you, and in you, will be gath- 
ered the black demons of distress and 
death. 

Ah, my brother, I wish I could take you 
with me one week in my pastoral work 
— just that you might study the human 
wrecks that come under my notice. And 
all ruined because they did not begin early 
to fight the Good Fight. And now, alas ! 
alas ! but few of them ever begin at all. There 
are a few exceptions. I see sitting before 
me men to-night who recently began this 
battle. And- there is not one of you but 
if he were now to speak, would say, "Oh, 
I only wish I had begun earlier. I would 
have saved much time. I would have 
saved so much strength. I would have 
done so much good. I would have escaped 
so much bad, and gained so many victories 
that now I must forego forever." Let me, 
then, prevail with you, dear young men, 
whom I see by hundreds here to-night, to 
begin the good fight at once. Put it not 
off a single day. Come after this service ; 
give me your names for the Holy War. 
Become holy contestants, and bye-and-bye 
you shall be holy conquerors. And, oh, 
ye fathers and mothers who have dear 
ones sleeping in their little cribs at home : 



LESSONS OF THE BIG EIGHT. 



245 



resolve that those dear little ones whom 
you so much love, shall by you be pre- 
sented early to the Captain, early to the 
Lord. Take them aside, one by one. Pray 
with them, talk to them, reason with 
them, and by loving, faithful, careful 
training, prepare them early to enlist in 
the ranks of Jesus. Ah, tonight I have in 
mind a sad instance of parental infidelity. 
She was a lady. She lived in her own 
brown -stone house. She was a professional 
member of the Church. We were having 
revival meetings. She had a beautiful 
daughter. I called to ask her to pray for 
her daughter, and to present her in her 
young and tender innocence to the Lord. 
That mother said, " I am not in sympathy 
with revivals. I think my daughter is all 
right. She is young, and good, and fond 
of company, and I should deem it cruel to 
tie her up to a church life. When she 
becomes of age, she can choose for herself." 
I said, " True ; but you are her mother ; it 
is for you to influence her in the very best 
direction." " Well," she said, " I think it is 
better she should remain as she is." Ah, 
friends, that was years ago, and as I look 
back and read the record, my soul 
shudders to record it. It was simply this : 
that young and lovely girl grew up, and 
broke her mother's heart, and blighted her 
own life, and now fills a disgraceful grave. 
I went to see her mother in her sore-soul 
sorrow. She broke down, and wept con- 
vulsively about her darling child, and 
between the hysteric spasms of her sobs 
she said, " Sir, it was not her fault. On 
me, on me, lay all the blame. I remember 
how I spurned your entreaties to give her 
up to God. It breaks my heart anew to 
know that had I then done as you desired, 
I would have been a happy mother, and 



she ! ah, oh ! ! oh ! ! ! " and went oft 

into unconsciousness. All because she 
would not begin early. My hearers, begin 
early ! early ! ! early ! ! ! 

II. Train skilfully. The man who 
holds the championship of the world did 
this. His predecessors did this. Men who 
succeed eminently do this. Train skil- 
fully. This implies that you train with 
the best teachers. There are many vain 
babblers. There are many books of death. 
These you must avoid. They will take up 
your time, mislead your mind, and wreck 
your life. If you want to be great in the 
Good Fight, read only the very best books, 
and listen to only the very best teachers. 
You say, " How am I to know the best ?" 
You can know the best by finding the 
books that have done most to demolish 
the devil's kingdom, and the men who are 
doing the most to destroy the works of the 
devil. It makes no difference what a book 
is, or who a man is that is making the 
devil howl, tie to that book — learn of that 
man. As a rule, the man against whom 
there is the most outcry is the man who 
has gotten the devil by the ear. When I 
was a boy, we used to have trouble with 
the pigs. They would break into the 
potato field, and root up the young bulbs. 
The servants went out after them, and 
when I heard a pig yelling I knew a ser- 
vant had that pig by the ear. And so, 
when you hear a great outcry about any 
devoted, dutiful servant of God, you can 
make up your mind he has gotten some 
devil by the ear who is despoiling the 
vineyard of God. You just study how 
that is done. It is difficult to do it. It's 
a trick very few know about. But 
you study the habits of the man who 
knows it. Study his habits of heart, of 



246 



LESSONS OF THE BIG FIGHT. 



thought, of work. You just take lessons 
of him, and it will help you in training. 
Not that I would have you imitate any 
man, for that is a source of weakness 
always. But you need to know what the 
successful man has done with his time and 
talent, so that you may learn what to do 
with yours. You will find, in every case, 
where a man is a great fighter in the Good 
Fight, he takes his leading orders from 
the* commander-in-chief. That Com- 
mander-in-Chief has orders for you. He 
wants you to listen to His commandments. 
He wants you to study his regulation 
rules. He wants you to study the laws 
he has laid down in His manual, and to 
practice them. If you do this thoroughly, 
you will be so proficient that He will give 
you side laws that pour in from His works, 
and His world. These you are carefully to 
work into your life by constant labor. The 
chief forces that you are to train skilfully 
are neither physical, nor intellectual. You 
should be careful to feed, and exercise, 
and keep your body ; but it should be 
kept in subjection. You should be diligent 
to inform, and develop your mind ; but all 
its faculties are to be under the domina- 
tion of the spiritual. If you are to be a 
well-trained man, you must be a well- 
balanced man. To be well-balanced, you 
must give each part of your nature its own 
proper place and play. The body is the 
travelling tent ; it should be kept sweet, 
and pure, and clean, and healthy. The 
mind is the purveyor, quarter-master, or 
feeder, and it should have full sweep, and 
swing, all over creation to gather nutri- 
tious germs, and gems from near and far. 
But the real being to be fed in you, to be 
exercised by you, to be most thoroughly 
tamed, and trained, and strengthened in 



you, is the soul. Hence, all the soul, in 
all its multiplex affections, and passions, 
and powers, is to be most powerfully 
drilled, and disciplined. You have a good 
standard of measurement, to which the 
feeling may attain, in the Sermon on the 
Mount — humility of spirit, sympathy ol 
soul, meekness of heart, thirstiness, and 
hungriness after doing right, tender com- 
passion for others, pure-heartedness before 
God, peacef ulness before men, yet train- 
ing so heroically for square, up-and- 
down, and out-and-out righteousness, that 
you will be persecuted for its sake. 

Every grace of the soul should be 
trained. The athlete trains every muscle 
of the body, and one weak muscle will 
hinder a man from being a master athlete. 
The soldier, in training for the Good 
Fight, trains every power of the soul. The 
soul of man is so great that it appears like 
a great equerry, with various spirited 
steeds that need special training. I used 
to watch the horse-trainers when I was a 
boy. They would come and take out a 
nice, stylish, young colt, and it would 
jump, and kick, and fiing, and try to run 
away. But when the trainer got the 
training harness on, it would soon, under 
his adroit dexterity, settle down to busi- 
ness. Then he would bring out another, 
and another, till the whole stable knew the 
knack of expert and apt obedience. Pre- 
cisely so is it with the steeds of the soul. 
In their untrained state, they are wild, and 
refractory, and are disposed to kick the 
rider, and fly away. But when the true 
trainer of humanity— Jesus Christ — puts 
the Gospel yoke on, we begin to feel how 
easy, and light it is, and how it holds up 
our heads, and our hearts, and our char- 
acter, and our lives. Then we begin to 



ZESSONS OF THE BIG FIGHT. 



247 



set a pace for the " Good Fight," and con- 
tinue it to the end. Let Jesus train 
your passions, and then your faith, and 
your love, and your joy, and your peace, 
and your gentleness, and your goodness, 
and your meekness, will ride on these 
trained passions to victory. 

III. And, now, having begun early, and 
trained skilfully, the next thing to do is 
to fight. There is no use of beginning 
early, and training thoroughly, unless you 
fight. Oh, but you say, " I thought the 
Gospel was a Gospel of peace. Did not 
the angels sing ' Peace on earth, and good- 
will toward men ? ' Did not our Saviour 
say, 'Peace I leave with you, My peace 
give I unto you ; not as the world giveth 
give I unto you ; let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be afraid ? ' " True ; 
but Jesus also said, " I came not to send 
peace, but a sword," Matt., 10:34, and 
" He that hath no sword, let him sell his 
garment, and buy one," Luke, 22:36 . 
" Yes ;" but you say, " when Peter, after 
this command, took his sword, and struck 
the ear off the priest's servant, Jesus 
replaced the ear, and said to Peter, " Put 
up again thy sword into its place, for all 
they that take the sword shall perish by 
the sword." Matt., 26:51. This, too, is 
true. But Paul says, "Fight the Good 
Fight of faith ;" and, ready to depart, 
cried, " I have fought a good fight." Here 
we have one passage that cries for peace, 
: and another that cries for war. What are 
we to understand by the seeming contra- 
diction '? This : that we are to fight ; that 
we are to contend. But never as the 
world contends. We are never to contend 
as pugilists do, for worldly pelf, for physi- 
cal victory ; but we are to " contend ear- 
nestly for the faith delivered unto, the 



saints." We are to fight with vigor for 
truth, for righteousness. We are to fight 
with all our might, and all God's might, 
for the deliverance of man from error, and 
sin, and hell. By this I do not mean that 
you are to have a pugnacious spirit. That 
is one of the things we are to fight down, 
and knock out. We are to fight down, 
and out, all wrath, anger, clamor, petu- 
lance, irascibility, peevishness, snappish- 
ness, sourness, churlishness, quarrelsome- 
ness, vindictiveness, and acerbity. Nothing 
of this sort is to be found in us, no, not for 
a moment. And then we are to stand up 
like men, beaming with love, overflowing 
with good nature, yearning w T ith pity, 
moving with compassion, flaming with 
zeal, transported with the enchanting 
charms of charity, and fight as Jesus 
fought, and as Paul fought, and as Wesley 
fought, and as Spurgeon fought, and as 
Moody is fighting. That is what is meant 
by this kind of fighting. "The weapons 
to be used are not carnal." They are 
not muscular, nor metalic, nor material ; 
but they are " mighty, through God, to 
the pulling down of even the strongholds " 
of the enemy. The business of the Christ- 
ian is to fight at his best, with his best. 

IV. This brings out the fact that we 
are to fight good-naturedly. This is the 
way skilful trainers teach pugilists to fight. 
They shake hands, and come up smiling. 
Of course, it is all a miserable burlesque ; 
but still these sagacious fellows see the 
necessity of fighting with their best end 
foremost. And so they say, " Keep cool ; 
don't get mad." If you do, you will get 
rattled, and lose the battle. If such is 
the counsel given those who fight bad bat- 
tles, how much more do we need it who 
fight good battles. In this respect, alas, 



248 



ZJZSSONS OF THE BIG FIGHT. 



" the children of this world are wiser in 
their generation than the children of 
light." Jesus had to contend against 
irascible hypocrisy in His time ; we have to 
contend against it in ours. How common 
it is to see people get nettlesome and irrit- 
able, and so lose their heads in a good 
fight. They can scold, and pick flaws, and 
stand off, and find fault, and then get 
out of temper, and run to the devil alto- 
gether. But that is not fighting the Good 
Fight. That is giving up, and getting 
licked. That is going over to the enemy 
body, and soul. No ; the man who fights 
the Good Fight must fight it with good, 
and not with evil. His motives must be 
good ; his temper must be good ; his 
weapons must be good ; his cut, and thrust 
lunges must be good, and he himself must 
be good. No bad man can fight this good 
fight. He must be good through and 
through, to begin with. Then he must 
bring all his good to the front. He must 
keep all his good at the front. He is to 
live at his best all the time. It is a good, 
and a great fight, and all the ranks of love, 
and all the powers of joy, and all the 
cohorts of peace, and all the infantry of 
gentleness, and all the energies of good- 
ness, and all the troops of meekness, and 
all the armament of temperance, and all 
the platoons of patience, and all the dra- 
goons of faith, and all the cavalry of 
charity, and all the charioteers of know- 
ledge, are to be enfiladed into line 
of battle — all standing ready for any, and 
every emergency, watching the move- 
ments of the enemy, guarding every pass, 
occupying every trench, manning every 
redoubt, and then when the crisis comes, 
when the Commander calls " Forward !" 
move with vigor all along the line, 



and win another victory for humanity. 
But you say I don't know how to get 
and keep all my good forces at the front. 
The answer is plain. Keep always close 
up to the good Commander. No bad 
forces can live under the eye of Jesus. 
Insist on following Him up closely. Do 
not for a moment get out of His company. 
Walk by His side, keep step with Him, 
watch His movements, do as He does, and 
do as He says and you will never have any 
■trouble about the alignment of your best 
powers. You will need your best powers 
in His company. His Companionship will 
bring them all out and keep them all 
strong and great and vigorous. This will 
make you victorious in every fight. You 
cannot lose a battle when Jesus leads you 
on . The harder the fight the better. The 
more you are buffeted and beset, the 
better. The greater the trials the deeper 
the tribulations, the fiercer the foe and the 
more formidable the oceans of suffering 
through which you have to pass, the better. 
You never will be called to fight harder 
than Jesus f ought. You never will be called 
to suffer more than He suffered. Never 
was man marred more than He. " All ye 
that pass by behold and see if there be any 
sorrow like unto My sorrow." But if you 
suffer like Him you shall reign like Him. 
The deeper the distress, the grander the 
deliverance. The hotter the battle, the 
higher the conquest. The fiercer the fight, 
the more brilliant the victory. 

Move forward, valiant men and strong, 
Ye who have fought with Jesus long. 
The time is near for you to rise 
And grasp the everlasting prize. 

V. Having seen we are to begin eafly, 
train skilfully, to fight and to fight good- 



LESSONS OF THE BIG FIGHT. 



249 



naturedly, we now come in the next place 
to look at what we are to fight for. 

For "Eternal life." The Nevada fight 
was not even for temporal life. It was 
for money and fame, And you easily see 
how much wear and tear and risk those 
men went through for even that. It only 
represents how much men will do for the 
sake of mere temporal gain. There is 
somewhat in us that clings tenaciously to 
life. We will sacrifice all rather than 
part with it. We will put up a big fight 
any time rather than die. Millions upon 
millions are spent daily for the sake 
of temporary life. Men fight for it. 
They fight for it in the professions, in 
business circles, in the trades and on the 
farms. Life ! Life ! ! Life ! ! ! is the cry 
of the world, we will work for it, 
we will give for it, we will fight for 
it. And so precious is life that any 
man in the eye of the law is justified 
in defending his life if he has to kill some- 
body to do so. This is natural. And 
this clinging to life with such loving te- 
nacity with such pathetic eagerness, has in 
it a purpose and a prophecy. The purpose 
is to propagate existence. The prophecy 
is that this existence is but the beginning. 
The fact that you want to live is a proph- 
ecy that you may live. The fact that you 
long for life is a prophecy that there is 
life for you. And right at this point faith 
comes to the aid of sight. The gloomy 
grave lifts up its clayey shrouds and cries, 
come back to murky mother earth. I am 
the end of all. The eye looks and says, 
yes truly that is the end. 

Six feet by two beneath the sod. There 
in that narrow crypt I meet my end. The 
soul revolts. The spirits shrieks. The 
instinct screams. The intuition rises on 



pinions of all-piercing trust and cries. I 
will not, I shall not, I must not die. Life ! 
Life ! ! Life ! ! ! Lasting life is my goal. 
Ah yes, but where is your warrant? 
What is your guarantee ? Where is your 
authority? Science, logic, philosophy, 
learning, nature, all stand mute. 

But breaking through the gloom, drift, 
come clear and resonant the resounding 
words. " Fight the Good Fight of Faith, 
lay Hold on Eternal Life " Ah here is 
a command and in its heart a revelation. 
I have been fighting by sight, for temporal 
life and I know I must yield in the un- 
equal contest ere long. But — lo, here is 
another kind of life, a better kind of life. 
A life that death cannot dissolve. A life 
that disease cannot assail. A life that 
Nature cannot destroy. A life that 
needs no pharmacies nor physicians to keep 
it vital. A " life hid with Christ in God." 
A Good life. A Faith life : A Love life ! 
An "Eternal life." Ah, that is what I 
want — that is what I need — that is the 
thing after which I yearn and crave and 
pray. Every one of you is saying this as I 
speak. I see it in your faces. Well, in the 
name of all that is true, if that is what 
you want why don't you fight for it? 
There you are fighting for a poor puny 
temporal existence that you know you 
must lose sometime soon and you don't 
know the moment. Now, what I want you 
to do is to quit that. Quit fighting for 
mere temporal life as a finality and a 
supremacy. Let it have its place. Be in- 
dustrious and economical and generous — 
but here is the thing to fight for. The 
thing that is worth more than ten million 
temporary lives. Eternal Life ! Eternal 
Life ! ! Eternal Life ! ! ! Let the news of 
it resound through all the avenues of your 
soul. Let the thought of it thrill yoU 
with the love of the battle. Let the 
General-in-Chief of the pioneer forces coriie 



250 



LESSONS OF THE BIG FIGHT. 



to the command. Let Faith strong and 
vigorous take hold of your virtues — let — 
those virtues come trooping round that 
eagle-eyed leader. And then headlong 
fling yourselves into the battle. Never 
rest till the last foe expires. Never 
give quarter till every enemy is slain. 
Blood ! Blood ! ! Blood ! ! ! you must have 
the blood, the life blood of every vile 
passion, the life blood of every heart de- 
mon, the life blood of every devilish habit. 
Gather them up in line. Corral them 
closely. Drive them into a corner and 
then shoot them down as you would mad 
dogs. Give them no quarter. Compromise 
not with any evil of heart or habit. 
Down with them. Rattle them round the 
ring till nothing is left but their mangled 
remains. Then having disposed of your 
enemies. Having slain with the sharp 
sword of the spirit the last foe, you have 
well begun the battle for " Eternal life." 
Your next business is to open yourself up 
to the Eternal life forces — you have spoiled 
your enemies. Now you are to secure 
your friends. You are to let them fill you 
in every faculty, flood you in every affec- 
tion. Dominate you in every fibre. You 
are to let God the Fountain of Everlasting 
life into your heart. He is to be the one 
to whom you will submit every plan and 
project. Your cry is to be "Lord what 
will Thou have me do?" Your business 
when you have received an answer will be 
to do it. You have now only one Master, 
only one motive. Only one cry. That 
cry is, " this one thing I do forgetting the 
things that are behind, and reaching forth 
to those that are before I press toward the 
mark for the prize of my high calling of 
God in Christ Jesus." That mark is holi- 
ness, that prize is eternal life, the greatest 
prize ever offered mortality. All the 
prizes of thrones and coronets and king- 
doms ever gained by wading through the 
slaughter grounds of time do not begin 
to compare in value with this prize. No 
figures can compute its value. No words 
can paint its worth. No thoughts can 
portray its privileges. " For it hath not 



entered into the heart of man to conceive 
the things that God hath laid up for them 
that love him." We can conceive of many 
riches and glories packed away in the vast 
store houses of this universe. We can 
conceive of many magnificent mansions 
and much magnificent company amid the 
illimitable beauty and power of the skies. 
But after we have made conception after 
conception. After we have made calcula- 
tion upon calculation. After we have let 
loose the eagle of our imagination and 
after he has soared high, deep and wide to 
scan the riches God has laid up for his 
heroes. Still they stretch away into 
illimitable and inconceivable splendor far 
beyond the reaches of the most vivid 
thought. You may call in the great 
mathematicians, the lightning calculators 
you know the majesty of such human 
minds. You know to what depths they 
can pierce, to what heights they can soar, 
what vast expanses they can comprehend, 
and yet after these mighty minds have 
done their utmost to compute the wealth 
of God's Heroes, it stretches afar beyond 
them, " for it hath not entered into the 
heart of man to conceive the things that 
God hath laid up for them that love Him." 
Here then is the Good Fight, how we are 
to fight and the inconceivably great re- 
ward to victors given. Who then can 
refuse to enlist and sing : 

I'll fight the fight of faith for Thee 
Great Sovereign of Immensity 
Strengthen me by Thy mighty grace 
To help the fallen human race, 

Thou my life, my light, my power, 
Guide, guide me every passing hour 
Oh, make me strong, in battle brave, 
And many sinners, help me save. 

Expel all weakness and all fear. 
And come O come, Thou very near 
And lead me to the battle true, 
And every enemy subdue. 

Fill all ray life with Fortitude 
And o'er me by Thy spirit brood 
That I may lead Thy people still 
From height to height of Zion's hill. 



New Wine for New Bottles* 



" They put new wine into new bottles." — Matt, rx : 17. 



ORE accurately rendered, " they put 
new wine into new wine-bags." 
They do this to preserve both bags 
and wine. If they put new wine into old 
bags, both perish. Jesus said, " Ballousin 
oinon neon eis askous kainous" to illus- 
trate a great truth. The old Jewish sys- 
tems were the old bags. They were not 
fit to receive the new powers of His king- 
dom. They split up under the pressure of 
its expanding power. New systems were 
needed to receive His new forces. This is 
as true now as then. The hypocrites, 
Scribes and Saducees, are just as unfit 
to receive the Gospel in these days as they 
were in those days. The old secularists, 
and pleasure-hunters, and unbelievers, and 
sin pursuers of Boston are just as unwilling 
now to be saved by Jesus Christ as they 
were in Jerusalem, Athens, or Corinth, in 
St. Paul's time. These old wine-bags don't 
know enough. They never did, and never 
can, till they are made over again. But 
this process of new-making is going on. 
" Behold, I make all things new," echoes 
from the Almighty throne. This is our 
hope, and our only hope. Browning may 
make Pippa sing : 

" God's in His Heaven, 
All*s right with the world." 

But this is only in prospect. Whatever 
may be the case with the world in the fut- 
ure, it has been in a bad way for a long 
time, and is in a bad way now. It is bet- 
ter than it was. It is going to be better 
than it is. .Many wonder why it has 
not been made better long ago. The rea- 
son is that people have been putting new 



wine into old wine-bags. The bags have 
burst, and the wine been spilled. To cor- 
rect this is the duty of the hour. If it is 
not corrected, it is going to be bad business. 
Christ brings the new wine, the new life, 
and I want to show you into what we 
must receive that new life, if it does not 
destroy us. 

Yes ; mark what I say : if it does not 
destroy us. It is either the " Savor of life 
unto life, or of death unto death." It will 
either raise us to glory, or " grind us to 
powder." It is the most serious and tre- 
mendous power in existence. You cannot 
get away from it. You must have to do 
with it. Every man, whether he will or 
no, must give an account of himself to the 
Christ power. You might as well try to 
avoid gravitation. It is shallow, and silly 
for you to sit back there in those seats and 
say, " I'll be neutral. I like to go out and 
hear Brady ; but, then, I'm going to think 
and do as I please, all the same." Yes ; 
you can think, and do as you please, and 
God is going to think, and do as He 
pleases, and when the two of you get 
through thinking, and doing as you please, 
you'll be blazing in the red-hot billows of 
eternal fire, trying to form a stock com- 
pany in vain, to get a drop of water to 
cool your tongue. There are many things 
you can defy as you sit there securely 
tonight. You can defy the hurricane in 
its wrath. You can defy the earthquake 
in its roar. You can defy gravity in its 
its grasp. You can defy the devil in his 
wiles. But there is one thing you and no 
other man can afford to defy, and that is 




NEW WINE FOR NEW BOTTLES. 



the faithful message of the Gospel of 
God. For God is in that ; your fate is in 
that ; your life, sir, is in that, and upon 
your acceptance or rejection of that 
depends your Heaven, or your hell. There 
is not one of you here tonight but would 
have been saved long ago if you had not 
received the " new wine in the old bags." 
You wicked old rascals, you know this is so. 
You received the good news, the gracious 
love, and life of God into old, sinful ears, 
into old, villanous thoughts, into old, sav- 
age hearts, into old, damnable practices ; 
and here you are tonight, nothing but 
split-up, old ( askous ) leather wine-bags, 
as tough as the tanneries of sin can make 
you. 

You have been going the rounds of 
Brooks, and Moody, and Jones, and all the 
rest of them, and you're worse off tonight 
than ever before, because you have been 
trying to receive the New Gospel into your 
old, cracked-up, wicked lives. Now, you 
had better learn the truth. If you were to 
live a thousand years, and hear the Gospel 
every day, and hold .on to your old, 
wicked selves, you would be worse off just 
one thousand times, than you are now. 

What would you have us do? Have 
you do ? There is nothing in the world 
half so important to you as the answer to 
that question. I shall now proceed to 
answer it. I shall answer it so clearly 
that the very dullest of you cannot fail to 
see it. The question naturally, of itself, 
falls into three divisions : The particular 
thing you are to receive? Into what you 
are not to receive it, and into what you 
are to receive it. 

I. The particular thing you are to 
receive. It is a specialty. There never was 
any other thing equal to it. There never 



can be any other thing equal to it. It is 
called by many names. It is set forth 
under many tropes. But when we come 
down to solid fact, it is nothing more nor 
less than the parental Heart of God. It 
is not the legal heart of God, nor the nat- 
ural heart of God merely : but the parental 
Heart of God. Ye, with all your faults, 
are God's children. Jesus made this the 
first premise of His system. He speaks of 
" Your Father in Heaven." " Our Father 
which art in Heaven." " Be ye perfect, 
even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." 
The whole trend of His teaching was to 
convey this original root, principle, and 
power to the world. Not as the poets 
represented Zeus as the natural Father of 
gods, and men ; but as the Spiritual 
Father, calling us to new birth, lifting us 
to lasting life, and sending even His sin- 
less Son Himself, to teach and die, that 
through atonement, that love idea might 
be given to men who believe. Now, this 
parental Heart of God is the sweetest, most 
precious, and important thing that ever 
came into this, or any other world. It is 
true, tender, touching, and tremendous 
in its passion and power. The fact is, in 
our moral blindness, we had flung away 
God's paternal heart. We had spurned it, 
despised it — would have nothing to do 
with it. We heard other voices ; listened 
to other claimants, and forgot, and ignored 
the sweetest, strongest thing in exist- 
ence. I once knew a lad who, by rela- 
tives, was coaxed away from his father's 
home. Those relatives found fault with 
that father. They made the boy believe 
that his father was too severe in his dis- 
cipline ; too exacting in his authority, and 
over-bearing in his demands. The result 
was the boy ran away. He was taken in 



NEW WINE FOR NEW BOTTLES. 



257 



hand by the hard, wicked world. He passed 
through protracted, and piercing sorrows- 
He became destitute, sick, and helpless. In 
his distress, his father sent a messenge r 
with a letter. That letter read : " My 
own precious child, I herewith send you 
my heart. Come and love me as you 
did when you were an innocent boy. 
I love you as I did then. Come 
home to your own loving father? 
and receive me as such again.' 
These words went like spears of fire 
through that young man's soul. A sense 
of worthlessness, and guilt came over him. 
Conviction of ingratitude possessed him, and 
he felt unworthy of a father so constant, 
kind, and true. His father's heart had 
come to him. He received it, returned, 
and had a royal welcome. It reminds you 
of the prodigal whom Jesus pictures. 
Through all his pompous prodigality, he 
had forgotten his Father's heart. He 
thought only of the good times that never 
came. Let the swine of this world get 
hold of a well-to-do young man, and see 
what a change they make. Husks for 
food, swine for company, rags for raiment, 
disease for health, despair for hope, agony 
for joy — this is the kind of exchange the 
world, flesh and devil give the man who 
throws away his Heavenly Father's Heart 
of Care. There are many false hearts in 
this world. There are few of you who 
have not suffered from the deceitful heart, 
or the changeful heart, or the selfish heart* 
or the hateful heart. But this heart of 
your Father, so sweet, and kind, and true 
never lured anyone on to drop him 
into the gulf of grief. It is the same, 
through all changes. It gives with lavish 
generosity. It throbs with loving kind- 
ness, so loving that it beats its love out 



through ten thousand channels. It beats 
out its love in the empire of the sky ; in 
the bounteous supplies of earth, and sea ; 
in the vast and varied forces of nature. 
Love ! Love ! ! Love ! ! ! in all the 
immensities around us. And when these 
were insufficient to reclaim, God sent forth 
His Son, His own Son, His only Son, "the 
brightness of His glory and express image 
of His person," to bring His heart to us, ' 
through many a murky cloud, o'er many a 
rugged way, by many suffering scenes 
that crested in the red foam of Calvary. 
Truly, the great, loving heart of God is in 
His work. It has given grace and majesty 
immortal. Truly, God seems to seek to 
save all hearts but His own. So munifi- 
cent in gifts, so patient in love, so kind 
even to sinners — and this is the one heart 
that you refuse. You will receive hard 
hearts, sinful hearts, deceptive hearts, 
hearts that stab with the dagger of 
betrayal, and sting with the fangs of sin. 
But this highest, holiest, and most loving 
Heart you reject until now. Is there 
nothing noble left in you to res- 
pond to the love of such a heart as 
this ? Is your heart stone or steel ? Is 
it ashes mixed with dust, bestrode by 
demons, and beslimed by serpents, that 
you should refuse such love as this ? Ah, 
I hear you say, we have, we do receive it. 
Yes; you receive it as the old leathern 
bags the new wine — you become so leaky 
when it begins to work that none of the 
Divine Heart is left in you. This leads up 
to our 

II. Point. Into what you should not 
receive this Great Love Heart of God. 
You should not receive it with your old 
feelings. These old wine bags will not 
contain the ever active love of God. They 



258 



NEW WINE FOR NEW B01TLES. 



will rip open and fly to pieces. A woman 
came during Sam Jones' visit, and said, u I'm 
going to be a Christian." I said " glad to 
hear it God bless you." It was'nt a week 
before that woman came in a towering 
rage and said she had been rudely jostled 
by the crowd in the Temple and she didn't 
like it and she was going to quit. Well 
she was one of Jones' quitters and she'll 
never amount to anything with such feel- 
ings if she were to get such religion a 
thousand times. You must give up your 
old vitriolic feelings when you admit God's 
life-love. Else it will leave you and pass on. 
Hard feelings, cranky feelings, angry, spite- 
full feelings, easily excited and irascible 
feelings, are the old wine bags that unfit 
you for the new kingdom 

2. Then there is little use of you 
receiving the Heart of God into your old 
habits of thinking. What is the reason so 
many people never come to anything after 
their so-called conversion ? It is because 
they go on thinking the same as before. 
They think the same thoughts, read the 
same books, give their imagination the 
same license. Their mental life is on the 
same low grovelling plane. Their con- 
ception and perception and reason and 
judgment and understanding remain tied 
down to the same old sordid self. These 
are the old mental wine bags that are 
unfit to receive and retain the new powers 
of the kingdom. 

3. Then there are jour old habits. 
You say : " Lord save me, but save me in 
my way. Give me thy love, but let me 
have my love. Speak to me, but I'll curse 
and swear and lie as before. Be good to 
me and bless me with Thy life, but I'll 
read the Sunday newspaper on Sunday 
morning instead of going to church as 



before. Give me this wine of joy, but 
I'll take my own wine on the sly. Give 
all Thy blessings, Lord, but I'll give my 
money for my personal indulgences, except 
a few cents on Sunday to ease my con- 
science and keep up connections and 
appearances, Lord. And I'm doing well 
when I do that much for Thee. It is Thy 
business to do for me, and it is my business 
to do for myself, and between the two of 
us I'll be pretty well taken care of." If 
Sam Jones were here he would call you an 
old rascal. And I don't think he would 
mis-name you. I myself call you a selfish 
old scoundrel, and there is a good deal 
more hope of a half decent donkey getting 
to heaven than you. You leaky old wine 
bag, you, the new wine cannot stay in you. 

You remind me of a weazen fellow 
who in one of my meetings professed to 
receive this Heart Love of God. 

There were a vast number converted in 
that revival that are now bright, shin- 
ing lights in the world. But this fellow 
acted strangely. He always seemed as 
though something was holding him back. 
It was an effort for him to speak in meet- 
ing. It was awkward and inconvenient 
for him to be regular at his spiritual meals 
Sunday morning and evening. It was my 
business to find out what was the trouble. 
I went at him. He was very secretive but 
I kept tossing him up and down, and 
turning him over and over, and giving 
him a spank here and a square-out there. 
Finally I said to him : " There is something 
serious the matter with you ! ! You don't 
seem to enjoy your religion. You're a man 
of good natural ability, but you do not 
seem to have any spiritual strength. You 
have been going three months now and 
you appear to be growing weaker instead 



NEW WINE FOB NEW B0T1LES. 



259 



of stronger. "Now," said I, " be honest and 
tell me the truth ! Have you given up 
reading the Sunday newspaper?" " No ! " 
" Have you given up reading infidel litera- 
ture ? " " No ? " " Have you given up 
all your former godless companions ? " 
" No? " " Have you given up your former 
habits of f eeling, thinking and doing ? " 
" No ! " " Well," said I, " what then are 
you fooling about ? You must know you 
cannot contain the new life in your old 
habits." And that fellow had the audacity to 
stand up and say " Well I thought I would 
try the new life and if it agreed with me 
all right, but if not I would dismiss it." He 
would dismiss it. Think of it. You might 
as well try to force circulation up through 
the dead trunk and branches of a decaying 
tree as to try to force the divine life to cir- 
culate up through a tissue of worldly, selfish, 
sinful habits like that. And the reason of 
this will appear in the development of our 
III Point. Into what are you to re- 
ceive the Heart love of God. There is a 
heart-life in this world as well as a heart- 
love. That heart-life is seen in all nature. 
There is something in the co-operation of 
the physical triad, soil, sun and rain that 
produces natural life when the seed is 
properly placed. And so there is some- 
thing in the co-operancy of the Divine 
Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, that pro- 
duces spiritual life when the germs are 
properly received. Jesus himself noticed 
this law. He portrays its operations in his 
parable of the Sower: "the Sower went 
forth to sow and as he sowed some seeds 
fell by the wayside and the birds came and 
devoured them, and other seeds fell upon 
rocky places where they had not much 
earth and straightway they sprang up, be- 
cause they had no deepness of earth, and 



when the sun arose they were scorched, 
and because they had not root they with- 
ered away. And others fell among thorns 
and the thorns grew up and choked them, 
and others fell upon good ground and 
yielded fruit, some an hundred fold, some 
sixty, some thirty." 

Our Saviour gives His own explanation 
of His own parable and it is the best e\er 
given and the best that can be given. It 
is this : "When any one heareth the word 
of the Kingdom and under standeth it not, 
then cometh the evil one and snatcheth 
away that which was sown in his heart." 
This is he that received seed by the way- 
side. 

"But he that receiveth the seed into stony 
places the same is he that heareth the Word 
and immediately with joy receiveth it. 
Yet hath he not root in himself, but en- 
dureth for awhile and when tribulation or 
persecution ariseth because of the Word, 
straightway he stumbleth. 

"And he that received the seed among 
the thorns is he that heareth the Word and 
the cares of this world and the deceitfulness 
of riches choke the Word and he becometh 
unfruitful. But he that received seed into 
the good ground is he that heareth the 
Word and understandeth it, who, verily, 
beareth fruit and bringeth forth some a 
hundred fold, some sixty and some thirty." 

Here is a most magnificent illustration 
of what we are speaking, furnished on the 
face of nature by the most magnetic speaker 
of the ages. 

Four men hear the seed- words about the 
love heart of their Heavenly Father : the 
first" of them receives the good news stu- 
pidly. He does not understand it. He 
takes no pains to comprehend it. He is 
dull, heavy, stolid, flat, doltish. He has 



260 



NEW WINE FOR NEW BOTTLES. 



no clean, clear, strong views about the 
matter. Other people are receiving it and 
so he receives it too. He is like a dunce 
at school who looks over the shoulders of 
other boys and copies their mathematical 
answers. He does it dishonestly and he 
does it mechanically. It is of no use to 
him whatever, because he does not under- 
stand the process. And what is worse he 
pretends to understand it when he knows 
he does not understand it. He adds hy- 
pocrisy to stupidity. He is a dishonest 
dolt. The very first thing necessary to 
success in anything is to understand it. 
The reason so many men are good for 
nothing is because they are good for every- 
thing. You find them lying around idle, 
by the score, because they can do anything, 
but understand nothing. My dear fellows 
it is better for you to understand one thing 
thoroughly, so that you are its master, than 
to be able to do a thousand things, every 
one of which masters you. You can succeed 
at nothing till you understand it. As in other 
things so in this ; you cannot succeed in 
receiving this love of God till you compre- 
hend what is meant by that love. You 
must perceive the nature, the mission, the 
majesty, the power and the destiny of that 
love. But so long as you do not try to 
understand this, in vain will you listen to 
preaching and praying and singing. In 
vain will you make a profession of religion, 
for if you don't understand what you are 
receiving, the Wicked One will come and 
snatch away what is sown in your heart. 
We make mistakes here ; we talk about 
enthusiasm and zeal and earnestness and 
all that. No w you know I always advocate 
these, but you also ought to know that I 
always teach that your zeal mast be accom- 
panied with knowledge. If you have "zeal, 



but not according to knowledge," you are 
like the old Jews who were dispersed all 
over the earth to give them a chance to 
cool off and become something. I can 
always tell inside a few weeks whether a 
convert is going to amount to anything. 
If I see him listless and inattentive to the 
Word of God, I just know he does not un- 
derstand it ; but if I see him with his hymn 
book and his Bible, and his eyes open and 
his ears set, and his whole being bent on 
learning about God out of his Word, then 
I know he is on the right track and will 
be heard from sooner or later ; but you old 
sinners that go smelling around for 
the latest bit of unholy gossip and never 
trying to become masters of a single great 
truth from God's Word through which to 
feed your soul, with the love of God's heart, 
you're just good for nothing, and at that 
pace never will be. The devil snatches 
every seed of truth out of you before it has 
been in you five minutes. 

The second man is a cousin to the first. 
He does not receive the heart love of God 
stupidly, but he is just as badly off. He 
receives it superficially. He receives it 
with a flourish. He receives it joyfully, 
but it has not gone into the soil of his 
nature half an inch before it strikes rock. 
The thin soil of his soul is like the crown 
head of a hill in a cultivated field, whose 
loam the rains and storms have swept down 
into the valley. His professorial head 
rises high, like that of Saul, above his fel- 
lows ; he's too good to last ; he's too shal- 
low to be safe ; he is too silly to be healthy 
and so, though he seems to get along 
while everything is floating his way, 
yet, when the devil unlimbers his big 
guns and fires at him he cries, "I didn't 
think it was to be like it is," and so gets 



NEW WINE FOR NEW BOTTLES. 



offended and goes back to his Lord Dun- 
dreary and cockney gang again. Such 
fellows are a kind of cross between a dude 
and a fop ; flimsy, superficial, no root 
in them. They do not stop to think that 
persecution is a part of the Christian pro- 
gramme, that tribulation is a species of 
winnoicing fan to separate the chaff from 
the wheat. There's a great deal of selfish 
chaff in this kind of people. It is always 
shallow to be selfish, but these people mis- 
take it for depth. They think it profound 
to take care of themselves. This selfish 
shallowness is hard and stony. The good 
seed cannot take deep root in such soil. 
Those afflicted by it forget that "he who 
saveth his life shall lose it and he who 
loseth his life shall save it." The deepest 
life is the self-forgetful, self-sacrificing life. 
The shallowest life is the self -saving life. 
Here is a seed ; suppose when the sower 
comes that seed had power to speak and 
run, and suppose that seed should say no, 
no, I am not going to permit myself to be 
placed under ground. I am going to take 
care of myself. I am going to stay here 
in the barn and take care that nobody 
buries me. The result would be that it 
would lie there, neglected by all the forces 
of nature, or else some fowl from the barn- 
yard would steal in and devour it, 
while its sister seeds, that were sown, 
received nutriment from all the fertilizing 
forces of nature and multiplied many-fold. 
As with a seed, so with a man. It is u they 
that be planted in the house of our God 
who shall flourish in the courts of our 
God." Shallow soil, no product ! 

3. The third man received the good seed 
among thorns. He heard the seed-mes- 
sage, he received it. He may have com- 
prehended it. He may have had depth of 



understanding in regard to it. But the 
" Cares of this world and the deceitf uiness 
of riches" among which it was sown in 
his heart sprang up and strangled it. A 
striking picture of many of you. You 
come Sunday night and hear of the Love 
of God and duty of man. Monday morn- 
ing comes and you rush to business. You 
catch the fever of money making. The 
red rash of worldly success is upon you. 
The white heat of earthly gain glows 
within you. The glitter, glare and splen- 
dor of temporary riches fascinate you. A 
desire for success in life, as it is called, 
drives you on. During the week you may 
go to some entertainment, but as for class 
and prayer meeting you desire none of 
them. Sunday morning finds you maw- 
kish and yawning, tired out and half sick. 
You pass that sacred morning between 
thoughts of your business and the Sunday 
newspaper. The good seed seeks to ger- 
minate. A bud shoots out here and a 
plumule there. They struggle toward 
a stalk. But the growing plantlet is soon 
strangled by the thick copse of secularities 
within you. By evening, you are world- 
weary and here you are again seeking a 
little comfort. And so it has gone on year 
after year. You continuing to have a 
little divine love seed planted in you, 
once a week and occupying all the rest of 
your time in garroting to death the tender 
sprouts of truth when they have sprung 
up. You are a much mixed and 
miserable man. At this rate you will 
never get even a glimpse of Heaven. You 
give a hundred and sixty-five hours a 
week to take care of what is temporal and 
three hours a week to take care of what is 
eternal. You give twenty-five dollars a 
week to take care of what is mortal and 



262 



NEW WINE FOR NEW BOTTLES. 



twenty-five cents a week to take care of 
what is immortal. Is it any wonder the 
good seed is choked to death. 

4. Now look at the fourth man and 
learn how to conduct yourself. He 
received the love seed of his Heavenly 
Father's heart in good ground. It was 
not beaten beneath the feet of eveiy tran- 
sient traveller, as was the case with the 
first. Nor shallow and stony as was 'the 
case with the second. Nor weedy and 
thorny as was the case with the third. 
But it was deep, soft, rich and loamy. 
" Good ground" — When the love seed en- 
tered his mind, his intellections clasped it 
and closed over it. When the love seed 
entered his heart his affections embraced 
it and endearingly espoused it. The love 
seed at once found itself in congenital 
climate and soil. The beaten places 
jnoughed, rocks removed, jungles cleared. 
And nothing left but the pure deep, soil. 
In such soil the love seeds begin to expand 
and then open, and then bud, and then 
grow up through all the heart and through 
all the mind, and through all the body, and 
through all the words, and through all the 
deeds. And the man is filled with divine 
Love. Love for the truth of God, love 
for the people of God, love for the Church 
of God, love for the Cause of God, love 
for the Service of God, love for the Heaven 
of God, Love! Love!! Love!!! for God 
Himself. He bears that love into his 
home, and his business, and the world, and 
Church. Now here's a man that is a man ! 
Strike him and he resounds with love: 
Lift him and he glows with love ! ! Sink 
him and he shines with love ! ! Turn him 
and he scintillates with love ! ! Persecute 



him and he sparkles with love! ! Prosper 
him and he burns with love ! ! ! Kill him 
and he blazes with the splendor of love 
forever and ever ! ! ! ! 

He is the only man in the world that 
canH be whipped. No matter what you or 
the devil does he will whip both of you 
every time, and come off more than a 
crowned Conqueror. Now you that have 
been receiving the love seed of God in 
such a shocking, shameful manner would 
you like to be just such a man as that ? 
It is your own fault, oh foot-trodden heart 
that you are in such a down-trodden con- 
dition. It is your fault, oh rocky heart 
that you are so shallow and hard. It is 
your blame, oh thorny soul that you are 
strangled with the cares of this world, and 
the deceitf ulness of riches. If you are going 
to be grand, rich, eternal. You will have 
to go at yourselves, plough up the f oot-pad 
ground, root out the rocks and wrench out 
the thorns. And then in the clean, clear 
soil of your soul receive the Love-Heart of 
God. This will make you a man, no 
matter what you are now. I can furnish 
you many specimens of such men and 
women too that have been made such by # 
divine grace in this Temple, before my eyes. 
I can no more doubt the power of the 
Love Life of the Christ genus to make 
such men and women, than I can doubt the 
existence of the sun. This process is now 
going on. It is going on according to 
law. That law is new lives for new love. 
If you will be made new, God will give 
you new life. If you will not be made 
new then you perish in the old life. New 
wine for new bottles ! ! ! 



Haste ! ! ! 



" Go out quickly." — Luke xiv : 12. 



THESE are the words of our Lord. 
He said them to the slow church 
folks of His time. The Church needs 
them now. The world moves quickly. 
Speed saves time. Time is precious. The 
world has discovered this. With the world, 
the best man is the man that can set a 
rapid pace, and keep it up. The best 
horse is the one that can lead the race. 
The best engine is the one that can fly the 
fastest. The best steamship the one 
that appears first at Sandy Hook. The 
best cable system is the one that conveys 
the news most rapidly. The world is on 
the rush. It has passed the walking, trot- 
ting, cantering, pace, and is coming in on 
a gallop. It has winged itself with light- 
nings, and is doing business by express. 
The Church has not kept pace with the 
world's gait. The scud of the world is 
shut off when you come to the best work 
going on in the world. So-called Christ- 
ians fight shy of direct, quick methods, 
because the world adopts them. If a man 
shows the world's pace in doing good, he 
is called peculiar. If success of the Church 
depended on the hobbling trudge of the 
growlers, it would get left. But God is 
in His Church, and He calls upon her to 
move out " quickly P The world has its 
steam ; but so has the Church. The world 
has its electricity ; so has the Church. The 
world has its telephone ; so has the Church. 
But the steam, electricity, and telephone of 
the Church can be infinitely more rapid, and 
powerful, than the steam, electricity, and 
telephone of the world. There is no need 
for the Church going slow. The power 



that marshals the steeds of the sky is in 
her. The swiftest power in this universe 
is God. He is the motor-power of the 
Church. With Him there is no limitation 
of speed. The duty of the Church today 
is not only to keep pace with the world, 
but to fly ahead of it, and instruct, lead, and 
lift it. This cannot be done by spasmodic 
spurts. Paroxysms are never healthy. All the 
Church has to do is to step into the Word 
of the Almighty, and go as fast as it 
wheels. He who wheels the worlds with 
such precise, secure velocity will make no 
mistake in the wheeling. But the trouble 
is, you won't let Him wheel you. You 
want to wheel yourself, — and that's the 
reason you never land. The business of 
this service is to land you in Jehovah's 
Word, by putting the Word in you. The 
Word comes, " Go out quickly! ! ! " But 
you sinners don't want to go out at all. 
And so you are shut up in yourselves, and 
with material things, perish rapidly. If I 
can induce you to set as brisk pace 
toward Heaven as you have toward hell, 
then I shall have the deepest desire of my 
heart. Satan was seen to " fall like light- 
ning from Heaven," and that's the way 
you dart away from God when he tells 
you to " Go out quickly." This discourse 
is not adapted to you, my beloved people, 
who are moving quickly with God. It is 
suitable to you who make a lolling camp 
of the Church, instead of recruiting station 
on the fly. 

Three points demand attention : Hind- 
rances to outgoers ; Hindrances to incom- 
ers, and How to set a proper pace for both. 



268 



HASTE. 



I. Hindrances to you who are called to 
' ' go out quickly." 

1. Fear of what people will say ! What 
have you to fear from people? Your 
Master commands you to fear them not. 
If He had feared them, you would never 
have been redeemed. If His leading Heralds 
had feared them, the Gospel would never 
have been preached. The people are weak, 
foolish, blind. They are not to be feared, 
but loved. They are not to be shunned, 
but saved. Popularity is not principle. 
Human good- will is not power. You may 
have everybody saying the sweetest things 
about you, and be as weak as was Sam- 
son without his locks, and eyes. You 
may have most people down on you, and 
be as strong as Gabriel with his trumpet. 
You are not called to please people, but to 
profit them. Foolish people like what 
hurts them, and hate what helps them. 
The world is still wicked, and out of sym- 
pathy with Christ. You are not dependent 
on its sympathy for success. Its hate can- 
not harm you. Its love cannot help you. 
You are entirely independent. The Gospel 
makes you free. " Cursed is he who 
trusteth in man." " Fear not them that 
kill the body, and after that, have no more 
that they can do." Those who wear the 
martyr's crown are the brightest jewels of 
humanity. Those who are nearest the 
Throne, with robes immaculate, and palms 
immortal, and songs eternal, and bliss 
most glorious, are they who " came up out 
of great tribulation, and washed their robes, 
and made them white in the Blood of the 
Lamb." Instead of fearing man, you 
should be glad to be counted worthy to 
suffer for man. It is the highest privilege 
beneath the skies to be one of the suffering 
host. It is worth more than all the riches, 



and fame, and position, and plaudits of 

earth. For "if you suffer with Christ, 

you shall also reign with Christ." This is 

best of all. 

u If with Christ thou sutler here, 
When His glory shall appear, 
Christ his s ufl'ering son shall own, 
Thine the Cross, and Thine the crown." 

2. Another hindrance to going out 
quickly is loant of confidence in yourself. 
You feel you are poor, uninfluential, 
unaccomplished in the arts of society, and 
uneducated in the lore of men. If you 
had confidence in yourself, it would dis- 
qualify you. The self-conceited soul is 
repellent to both God and man. One of 
you said last Friday night in testimony 
meeting that " the worse you feel the bet- 
ter you feel." That was a remark too 
sage for Socrates — Socrates never sounded 
the deeps of its meaning. It was beauti- 
fully Christian, and thoroughly Pauline. 
When men make remarks like that, it 
shows they are thinking. The idea of that 
dear, and venerable brother was, that the 
less confidence he had in himself, the more 
confidence he had in Christ. The less he 
enjoyed of this life, the more he enjoyed 
of the life to come. The more he suf- 
fered from conscious weakness in himself, 
the more he was delighted with the rap- 
tures of God. And that is the true exper- 
ience that shall stand the shocks of dis- 
ease, death, and the sifting flames of judg- 
ment. From the deepest distresses of 
Jesus flows His divinest dignity. " When 
I am weak then am I strong," shouts St. 
Paul. The weakness of the seed in burial 
becomes the strength of the tree in bloom. 

The feebler you are in yourselves, the 
stronger you will be in God. Now, notice, 
I am not talking of that kind of feebleness 
that comes from leanness of soul, languor 



HASTE. 



269 



of spirit, slackness of endeavor — a feeble- 
ness that produces spiritual paralysis, 
moral collapse, and general faintishness. 
But I am talking of the poor, puny esti- 
mate we place upon ourselves when we 
get an overwhelming, soul-flooding view 
of the matchless grandeur of our own lov- 
ing God. This view never comes to the 
self-filled man. It does come to the self- 
despairing man, who looks for it, and lives 
for it. It came thus to wrestling Jacob. 
Charles Wesley, the Bard of Methodism, 
makes him sing : 

" What, though ray shirking flesh complain, 

And murmur to contend so long? 
I rise superior to my pain, 

When I am weak, then I am strong ! 
And when my all of flesh shall fail, 
I shall with the God-man prevail. 

Yield to me now, for I am weak, 

But confident in self-despair ; 
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak. 

Be conquered by my instant prayer; 
Speak, or thou never hence shall move, 
And tell me if Thy name is love. 

Tis Love ! 'tis Love ! thou died'st for me, 

I hear thy whisper in my heart ! 
The morning breaks, the shadows flee, 

Pure, universal love thou art, 
To me to all Thy mercies move, 
Thy nature and Thy name is Love. 

Lame as I am, I take the prey, 

Hell, earth, and sin with ease o'ercome ; 

I leap for joy, pursue my way, 
And, as a bounding hart, fly home, 

Through all eternity to prove 

Thy nature, and Thy name is Love." 

3. I perceive just what you are saying 
in your heart, silently, as I speak. You 
are saying, " I'm not a coward. I'm not 
afraid of man, nor do I lack confidence. 
But there are so many others to " go out 
quickly," and give the Gospel invitation to 
the Divine banquet, that I do not feel I 



am needed." And so that is your hind- 
rance. You hide behind the barrier of 
duty done by others. No matter how 
many do their duty, they can never do 
your duty. You are a separate unit in 
yourself. You are accountable for your- 
self. " Every man shall give an account 
of himself to God." No such excuse will 
be of any avail before the judgment bar of 
Jehovah. The question will not be, What 
other people have done with their time, 
talents, and money. The question will be, 
What have you done with yours? You 
cannot hitch to some good brother who 
went out, and say, "I approved of his going. 
I prayed for him while he went. I sym- 
pathized with him as he went. I was his 
fellow church member, and his friend." The 
Judge of all the earth will do right. He 
will stop you right there. Would such 
specious sophistry carry you through a court 
of justice here ? Will the Judicial sharp- 
ness of the Supreme Court of this universe 
be less discriminating ? You shall be told 
you are not there to answer for your bro- 
ther. You are there to answer for your- 
self. It is you ! you ! ! you ! ! ! that will 
then be judged — your conduct, your 
deeds, your life, and not the life of some 
one else for you. Now, I think there are 
a good many of you who are screening 
yourselves behind this excuse. And if I 
shoot into your tents, you had better get 
out quickly, else you are liable to get 
wounded. When I level the Gospel gun, 
I cannot stop to consider who is in its 
range. My business is to load, and fire. 
If you are not there, you won't be hit. 
Now, then, look out ! ! Are there not quite 
a few of you huddled right in there ? Don't 
you say, at least practically, " The Temple 
is all right. Our pastors work like lions, 



•270 



HASTE. 



and our leaders, and stewards, and our 
folks generally are first-class workers. I 
guess I'll go to sleep." And so you have 
been sleeping for months, and now you 
are nearly dead for want of exercise. Xow. 
I'm going to lire into you. and wake you 
up. and if you don't like the shooting, just 
get out of the range of my guns. If you 
don't. I'll make you hop ! ! ! Xow. you 
lazy folks, that won't go out quickly, and 
give the Gospel message, because other 
people go. What right have you to live 
on the good works of others ? What 
right have you to forget that The Lord 
has need of you '? " What right have you 
to skulk around the camp when the battle 
is on '? What right have you to fold your 
arms, and sit down in quietness when the 
world is perishing ': What right have you 
to say you will leave to others the duty of 
inviting the perishing to joys celestial? 
Christ spreads His spiritual board from ten 
to twelve times a week in this ••banquet- 
ting House." The streets, and stores are 
full of starving people. The city is hiving 
with famine-stricken sufferers. The starv- 
ing districts of India are not to be com- 
pared to the starving streets of Boston, 
This is spiritual starvation within ear-shot 
of the dining table. Here we have all 
kinds of fresh supplies. We never have 
any musty bread, nor sour milk, nor rancid 
meat, nor even cold victuals. Everything 
is of the best material, well-cooked, well 
served, clean, and hot to order. And here 
you are. dawdling in lazy, lumpish, sirpine- 
ness. like an armadillo, or a tortoise, cov- 
ered with your testudo of excuses, when 
thousands of gaunt and hungry souls are 
blindly stalking all around you. and you 
haven't love, and ambition for either God. 
or man. to go out quickly, and invite them 



to the best banquet in the world. Get up. 
get out of there, you lazy drones. If you 
do not go out quickly, and call them in. 
you shall soon be suffering the same 
moral dearth, and spiritual famine your- 
selves that those whom you neglect are 
suffering. It would do you good to come 
to our banquets on Friday nights. Last 
Friday night, one brother, recently saved, 
told of how he had been blessed in giving 
up the theatre, and the gilded joys of so- 
ciety. He spoke of how God was blessing 
him in his body. mind. soul, business, and 
every other way. because he moved 
quickly, and brought others with him to 
the banquet. You could see by his form, 
and features, that every word was real, 
and every statement true. And many 
others gave similar experiences. Oh. the 
glory of these Friday night feasts. Xo 
words can portray it. You must taste, and 
see. to know how good they are. 

•• Blest Jesus, what delicious fare, 
How sweet Thine entertainments are ; 
Angels have never known above 
Redeeming grace, or dying love." 

4. There is another set of you who are 
not hindered by fear of man. or lack of 
confidence, or by the fact that others "go 
out quickly" to bring standings to the 
feast. But you are hindered by the fact 
that somebody else whom you know does 
not go out quickly. You say he does not 
so. and she does not go. ami so I will not 
go because they do not go : and the result 
is that none of your particular class go. 
You stand in each other's way. You 
encourage each other in ease-loving indo- 
lence. You strengthen each other in the 
way to death. Ah. my hearers, how 
dreadful that is ! There are bands of peo- 
ple all over this city, and suburbs, who 
look to this Temple as their spiritual 
mother, who act in just that way. You 
look at other churches, and you see thev 



HASTE. 



271 



do it. You look at each other, and you 
have caught the dire contagion of church 
sluggishness. You want to make the 
Church a loitering society, where you can 
come and get your Sunday meals with con- 
genial company. You forget that the Gos- 
pel feasts you secure here are intended to 
strengthen you to "go out quickly," and bring 
in others. The whole genius of the Gos- 
pel is constructed on the " Go " plan. The 
Father said to the Son " Go." The Son 
says to His people " Go." But you prac- 
tically say you won't go unless somebody 
else goes that you are looking to for 
example. If you were to act in that way 
in business what would become of you ? 
You know that is not the principle on 
which business succeeds. You should 
surely be as practical and sensible and ener- 
getic m regard to eternal business as you 
are in regard to temporal. Brace up, and 
go ! go ! ! go ! ! ! go out quickly ! ! ! ! 
Then you will set others going. Be lead- 
ers, not lackeys. 

II. We now come to Hindrances to in- 
comers. The Master mentions these hind- 
rances. Let Him here speak for Himself. 
He says, " A certain man made a great 
supper, and bade many ; and he sent forth 
his servant at supper time to say to them 
that were bidden, ' Come, for all things are 
now ready.' And they all, with one con- 
sent began to make excuse. The first said 
unto him, * I have bought a field, and I 
must needs go out and see it ; I pray thee 
have me excused.' And another said, ' I 
have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to 
prove them ; I pray thee have me excused.' 
And another said, 4 1 have married a wife, 
and, therefore, I cannot come.' The first 
of these self-excusers was a real estate 
owner ; the second was a live-stock dealer, 
the third was a woman lover. 

Look at each of these separately. The 
first was a real estate owner. Now, real 
estate is a good thing in its place. Cautious 
people put their money into real estate. 
Land is not likely to burn up, or run away. 
And so many calculating people own a 
piece, and say " I'm all right now. I have 



so many lots here, and so many lots there," 
Or "I have a nice little farm in the country." 
And you think you are finely fixed. Now, 
my dear, you are not fixed at all. The 
real estate is all right ; but you are all 
wrong. Your ownership of that real estate 
is not real. It is only loaned to you, and 
the tenure of the loan is, at the longest, 
short, and quite uncertain. You may occupy 
it fifty years, and you may not occupy it 
fifty minutes. When you talk, then, about 
owning real estate, you misuse language. 
Your ownership is only in your fancy. The 
hold you have of it is short, uncertain, fic- 
titious. And yet I have seen people so 
saucy over a loan of this kind that 
one could not go near them with the Gos- 
pel. They became so frenzied, and 
conceited, over their little loan that they 
think of nothing else, love nothing else, 
talk of nothing else. They never tire look- 
ing at it, and speculating about it, and 
building upon it. They actually are so 
silly and foolish about it that they won't 
take time to consider a genuine title to 
real estate that they will never be 
called to part with — an estate as much 
superior to anything here as a paradise is 
to a desert. Have I real estate men before 
me ? Listen ! If that loan you call your real 
estate prevents you from coming to the 
Gospel Feast, it will prove the greatest 
curse to you. It is not wrong for you to 
have real estate. But if you permit that 
estate to rise up between you and God ; if 
you are glorying in it when you should be 
glorying in God ; if you are using it in 
such way as prevents you from going to 
the Divine Supper, it would have been 
better for you to have had it concentrated 
and hung about your neck, and been with 
it cast into the depths of the sea. And yet 
if you know how to use real estate ; if you 
know how to make it a blessing to your- 
self, and your fellow-men ; if you use it to 
enable you not only to live for God, but to 
lead others to live for Him also ; if, 
through its possession, you are doing good, 
by devoting its profits to personal needs, 
and benevolent purposes, then, what you 



272 



HASTE. 



call your real estate below may, in its own 
proper way, help to prepare you for your 
real real estate above. 

A certain rich real estate borrower — I 
will not say owner, for that would not be 
true — lived near where I preached. He 
was a man of taste, culture, character, and 
position. He built an elegant house. He 
laid out lovely lawns. He imported beau- 
tiful statues. He had fountains playing 
on the emeraldine sward. He had flowers 
in beautiful bloom all the year round. 
People came from far to see his elegant 
establishment. His place was embowered 
in the shade of lovely trees. I have often 
seen him at dawn brushing the dew drops 
away like liquid diamonds, to feast his eyes 
on the plumules of some budding, or blush- 
ing plant. He used to ask me to visit his 
place. It was a pleasing duty to go, 
because of the opportunity it gave. When 
he had showed me all, I said, " This 
wealth of loveliness is great. How grand 
it would be if you could stay here, and go 
on making it still more lovely. How mag- 
nificent it would be if you could look for- 
ward, and feel you would never have to 
leave it !" He said, " I would give a great 
deal if that could be brought about." I 
then saw my opportunity, and said, " It 
can be brought about on even a grander 
scale?" He said, "How?" I said, "There 
is a little darksome river running between 
here and that place of glory, of which this 
is the faintest type. But I can see over 
that river, and 

" Oh, the transporting, rapturous scene 

That rises to my sight ; 
Sweet fields arrayed in living green, 

And rivers of delight. 

O'er all those wide, extended plains 

Shines one eternal day ; 
There God the Son forever reigns, 

And scatters night away. 

'No chilling winds or poisonous breath 
Can reach that healthful shore; 

Sickness and sorrow, pain and death, 
Are felt and feared no more." 

" That," he said, " must be a lovely 
country." I said, " Yes ; but that is a 



small part of its charm. It is not only 
lovely, but large, and eternal." " Ah," he 
said, " what fools we mortals be. Here I 
have for years been busy on this place, 
spending time, money, and labor, and after 
all I may have to leave it tomorrow." And 
then he added, in a most affecting voice, 
" and at the longest, it can't be long." 
"Yes;" I said, 1 ' that is so plain it needs 
no argument." " But," he added, " I am 
not living, after all, for this life. I like to 
have you come, and see me, and talk about 
the better life. I cultivate these flowers, 
with my mind on the flowers that 
never fade. I plant these trees, think- 
ing of the trees of righteousness. The 
chief joy I take in this place is because of 
the comfort and joy it gives to others ! ! " 
These were the sentiments of one of the 
brightest men this country has produced. 
That man was William Walter Phelps, 
then of New Jersey, and afterwards 
United States' representative at the court 
of Germany. The great, good man lives 
still in many hearts. But, best of all, he lives 
now in Heaven. If you will use your real 
estate to bring others to the banquet of 
God, God and man will bless you. But if 
you use it as an excuse for being absent at 
that banquet, it will damn you forever as 
sure as you now live. 

b. The second man who was hindered 
from coming to the Divine Supper was a 
live-stock dealer. He said, " I have bought 
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them ; 
I pray thee have me excused." This par- 
able was drawn from country scenes, and 
possibly you think there are no live-stock 
dealers here. Possibly not, — if you con- 
fine live stock to oxen. But the illustration 
of our Lord was intended to condemn the 
custom of permitting lower animals to pre- 
vent you coming to the Feast. That cus- 
tom is wider spread than you surmise. 
You have seen persons permit even dogs 
to so engross their attention that they 
could find no time for the royal banquets 
of Jesus. There are some of you who 
allow even poodles to stand in your way. 
I met a lady on the street the other day 



HASTE. 



273 



with her poodle. And oh, he was such a 
dear little thing that he had prevented her 
from coming to prayer meeting. She could 
not think of leaving him alone, for he 
would miss her so, she said. When I meet 
women of Boston — progeny of the Puritans 
— making a totem of these Hibernian-look- 
ing pugs, and leaving the Irish to populate 
the whole place with their Popish offspring, 
it just makes me sick. The fact is, the 
women that should be the mothers are not 
the mothers, and the women that are the 
mothers should not be the mothers. I go 
up Commonwealth Avenue, and I scarcely 
ever see a baby. I go down to the slums, 
and they swarm with children. Why is 
this ? Because the rich women love pugs, 
and the poor women love children. And 
then you Americans whine because the 
Irish are capturing Boston. You rich 
women are sowing dogs, and reaping Pap- 
ists. And you, and your country will be 
forced to reap the harvest. Away, eter- 
nally, away, then, with this American 
aversion to maternity. Motherhood is the 
sweetest, and most sacred relation a woman 
can sustain to the human race. Suppose 
your mothers had acted as you barren, 
doggy women do. Why, then there would 
have been none of you here, that's all. And 
perhaps the world would have been just as 
well off. Give up your dogs, and go and 
marry some honest, Godly man, if you can 
find one, and do your duty to the human 
race, as your mothers did before you, and 
you will then be in a condition to obey the 
invitation to the royal banquet of the 
King. I notice that you men seem spec- 
ially pleased because I have dared to 
speak the truth about women. Now, I 
am going to shoot into your barn. It is 
because of your licentiousness, and 
debaucheries these women exist. You 
have helped to make them. If you would 
play the man, and go and win the 
heart of some sweet, innocent girl, and 
make her your wife, instead of going 
around wallowing in the mire of female 
degradation, this class of women would 
have little or no existence. But you are 



fond of swinish variety, and afraid of fam- 
ily responsibility, and so there you are, 
you rakish, old revellers, guilty not only 
of your own destruction, but the destruc- 
tion of everyone you have helped to de- 
stroy. And some of you are just as wild 
over horses as women are over dogs. You 
own a fast roadster, and when you should 
be at the Divine banquet on Sundays you 
can be seen on the fly up and down the 
avenue. And so you think horse, and talk 
horse, and spend the money, and the time 
on horse that you need to save your pre- 
cious souls. Horses are noble creatures, 
but if you permit them to hinder you from 
obeying the call of your God, you do it to 
your own destruction. 

c. The last man had " married a 
wife, and, therefore, he could not come." 
There are three kinds of hindrances to 
coming to the Gospel Feast : the real estate 
hindrance, the live-stock hindrance, and 
the woman hindrance. And of the three, 
the last is the strongest, and strangest. 
Thousands of noble women come to the 
Feast in this Temple. May God bless 
them. I can never forget their goodness. 
But there is another class that hinders 
thousands of men from coming to the Ban- 
quet, although you do come to the Tem- 
ple, and you know it. I know scores of 
men who would have been converted here 
if it had not been for women. I know a 
good deal more about you than you think 
I know. I am not studying your interests 
night and day without learning a good 
many things about you. And I tell you to 
your face, that your Godless women keep 
you away from God. Some of you have 
said your women are dearer to you than 
even life. And some of you have said that 
much about women to whom you do not 
even pretend to be married. The result is 
that you, and your women, are going to 
hell together. . Why, you are not within 
cannon range of being as decent as the 
self-excuser in the Gospel. He had married 
a wife, and he could not come ; but you 
are leagued to harlots, and of course you 
cannot come. I tell you, sirs, you must 



274 



HASTE. 



give up those women, or you will perish 
together. But now as to the man who 
had married a wife, and could not come. 
If he had been the right kind of a man, he 
would have come, and brought his wife 
with him. Ah, you say, that is easily said, 
but not so easily done. Well, then, sir, if 
you have married a wife that refuses to 
come with you to the Banquet of God, I 
am sure I pity you, for you have been 
most unfortunate : for the heart of true, 
and tender womanhood always rapidly 
responds to the passionate, and tender love 
of Jesus. But if you have been so unfortu- 
nate as to get married to a woman of stony 
heart, and you cannot by love, and prayer, 
soften it, then, sir, it is your business to 
come to the Banquet, and leave the lady 
at home. And, perhaps after a while, like 
Christiana, who in Bunyan's Pilgrim, set 
out after Christian, when he had been 
well on the way, so your reluctant spouse 
may set out after you. But, sir, whether 
or no, one thing is true : your first duty, 
and highest honor, your conscience within 
you, your God above you, and His mes- 
senger before you, cry, " Come to the Ban- 
quet ! Come to the Banquet ! ! Come to 
the Banquet ! ! ! And come quickly ! ! ! ! 

III. This leads up to our last point of 
importance : How to set a proper pace for 
the Feast, whether you are inviters, or 
invited. If you are inviters, your business 
is to go quickly, and give the invitation. 
If you are invited, you are to come in 
quickly. David, fleeing from the sword of 
Saul, did not require to be in nearly so 
great haste as you. Yet he exclaimed to 
Ahimelech, "The King's business requireth 
haste." Satan is in hot pursuit of you. 
The hosts of sin are in hot pursuit of you. 
All the forces of evil are pressing in upon 
you rapidly. You need to act quickly. If 
you are too slow, you will be too late. The 
door will be shut, and you shall not enter. 
Now you can act successfully, if you act 
promptly. But you say, " How am I to 



so act?" The reply is clear. Look at 
that electric car, and find your answer. 
See it rush up and down, at the will of 
the motor-man ! Why ? It is because 
that car is attached to a complete current 
of electricity. If that current is cut off at 
any point of the circuit, that car cannot 
move. There is a circuit current overhead, 
and under foot. It was laid before the 
car was put on the track. Now that the 
car is on the track, the motor-man has 
only to let that complete current on that 
car, and it moves with the force of the 
power-house behind it. Now, consider 
your body that car for a moment, and your 
soul the passenger, and your mind the 
motor-man. Remember you are on the 
Gospel track. Remember the Gospel circuit 
current is complete. Now, turn the lever of 
your will upward toward God, and say, 
" Oh, God of pity, and of power, for Jesus' 
sake fill me with the life current of Thy 
love." Then, as you believe the 
Divine life will come into your whole 
being, you will begin to move on the 
tracks of truth toward the great Feast of 
God, and as you enter, and take your 
place among the royal guests, you will 
feel the sweet enchantment of His kind- 
ness, and sing through all your soul, " He 
hath brought me to the Banqueting 
House, and His banner over me is love." 
There have been many great feasts— feasts 
by Alexander, feasts by Belshazzar, feasts by 
kings, and queens, of vast variety, and 
splendor. But if all the feasts that ever 
were given, and all the feasts that ever 
shall be given, were all in value com- 
pressed into one, the mighty sum would 
not begin to equal this glorious Gospel 
Feast to which I invite you. It is the 
most costly ; it is the most enduring ; it is 
the most suitable ; it is the most strength- 
ening ; it is the most satisfying ; it is the 
most glorious. Then " Go out quickly," 
and ring the notes of invitation, till many 
others come " quickly in." Amen. 



The Fatherly Kingdom 



41 Our Father : : : Thy kingdom come." — Matt, vi : 9, 10. 



EVERY earthly good is a develop- 
ment. Human governments are 
no exceptions. There was first the 
family form of government ; but one fam- 
ily was often found unable to protect itself, 
and so families combined in clans under 
chiefs. These clans proved frequently 
insufficient against marauders, and they 
coalesced with kingdoms, under kings. 
These kings, in their realms, sometimes 
were arbitrary, and tyrannous, and out of 
their abuses grew so-called common- 
wealths. This country is one of these 
so-called commonwealths. It is the great- 
est, and the best, that yet has appeared. 
There has not been, and there is not, any- 
thing equal to it on the earth. It has suc- 
ceeded beyond the anticipations of the 
political seers. Economic prophets have 
had their brightest visions more than real- 
ized. And yet out of our vast, varied, and 
unparalleled successes, like weeds in a 
rich, neglected garden, arise new forms of 
evil. We must not misinterpret the pre- 
sent situation. I do not say that wealth 
is necessarily mischievous ; or that our rail- 
road systems are grievances, or that bank- 
ing houses are nuisances ; or that manu- 
facturing establishments are injurious ; or 
that even land proprietorship, and trusts, 
are necessarily corruptions, within . the 
body commercial. Contrary-wise, I do 
say that all these great institutions that 
have such a universal hold on our people, 
are, if properly used, unprecedented bless- 
ings. I say " properly used." But there 
is just where the trouble has begun, and 
continues. These great benefits, which 



have been growing so marvelously since 
the late war, are detrimentally used. Avar- 
icious, clever, and secularized men have, 
by the thousand, taken possession of these 
new forces, and have combined to en- 
rich each other through these powerful 
agencies, without regard to the effect such 
corporate combinations have on the vast 
multitudes struggling beneath them. The 
question evidently has been, and is, with 
the majority of powerful capitalists, How 
can we get rich, and how can we keep 
getting richer? without regard to what 
effect their methods of gaining fortunes 
produce. "Get the fortunes" has been 
the motto, whether you get them through 
watered stocks, or usurious dividends, or 
exorbitant and exacting compensations. 
Matters will be all right, if you only get 
the money. They have the money ; but 
matters are not all right. The poor are 
oppressed. The rich are hated. The wail 
of the people is heard above the bustle of 
business. The hungry and naked cry. 
The unhoused perish. The land is a vast 
lazaretto. The commonwealth has become 
a pluto-wealth. The low, hungry murmur 
of the suffering is heard. The deep grumble 
of want opens wide its jaws. The work- 
men, and workwomen are in distress. 7 he 
producers of wealth are robbed by wealth. 
There is something wrong with the science 
of distribution. There is something so 
seriously, so radically wrong that it must 
be righted, or there will be an upheaval. 
The governmental ground we stand on 
already quivers with oceans of pent-up 
fires. There must be relief, or there will 



280 



THE FA THEBL Y KINGDOM. 



be an eruption. What is the relief neces- 
sary ? How can that relief be secured ? 
These are the questions. Relief cannot be 
secured by complaisant promises. A little 
woman said the other day she had been 
living on sweet promises for three months, 
and it did not agree with her. The Ameri- 
can people are too advanced to be put off by 
promises. They must, and shall have some- 
thing really substantial. They will never 
go back to monarchy, and they will never 
submit to plutocracy. They are the rulers, 
and they know it. This is their country, 
and they feel it. Trifling will not do, nor 
will procrastination ! The people have 
become thoughtful, and serious. The man 
comes now to the front as a factor in the 
control of affairs, and must be regarded. 
Suppression of his rights only aggravates 
him ; pilfering from his pocket enrages 
him. The American is not either an 
Asiatic, or a European. He is brought 
up to look at things differently from either. 
He respects true manhood. He honors 
courage. But when it comes to a question 
of freedom, he calls no man master. He 
has come here for liberty, and he is going 
to have it. He will permit no collusions, 
nor combinations, nor conspiracies to rob 
him of that liberty. Not to heed his call 
for freedom is to nurse rebellion. Not to 
regard his cry for justice is to foster trea- 
son. Not to make provision for his just 
demands is to feed the flames of Nihilism, 
Socialism, and Anarchy. Every patriot, 
then, is interested in the way out of the 
impending troubles. Every Christian 
should lift his voice, and vote to obtain 
deliverance. But how is that relief to 
come? It must come through another 
great governmental growth. The family, 
the clan, the kingdom have been tried, 



and failed. The commonwealth is now 
being tried, with grandest, and most 
majestic results — results in developing a 
great nation ; results in science, and espec- 
ially in labor-saving science ; results in 
cultivating taste, decency, and manhood. 
But these rich results are blighted with 
contemporaneous rank results. These 
were not anticipated by the men who 
framed our constitution. They were not 
foreseen by Washington, Adams, Jeffer- 
son, and Franklin ; otherwise they would 
have made provision against them. But 
they are seen, and felt by the present gen- 
eration of thinkers. They are experienced, 
more or less, indeed, by us all. Every era 
has its mission ; every generation its duty. 
The duty of Englishmen of other days was 
to extend the franchise, so that every hon- 
est, competent man should have a voice 
in the government. The duty of Ameri- 
cans in former years was to throw off the 
galling yoke of kingcraft, and the 
oppressive yoke of slavery. Now a new 
issue arises out of our very successes. And 
in this generation it is our duty to throw 
off the tyrannous, and avaricious, and 
cruel bondage of plutocracy. And because 
it is a duty, it is going to be done. The 
American has both the intelligence, and 
courage to do it. He did it at Bunker 
Hill. He did it at Appomatox, and he is 
going to do it at Aristocracyville. But 
we, my friends, must not be demagogues. 
We are not to be irrational, nor will we 
permit ourselves to be intolerant, and 
clamorous. We have no looting policy to 
propose. We despise lawlessness^ and dis- 
order, and above all things, we hate rob- 
bery. But, at the same time, we know our 
natural, and gracious rights, and we are 
simply going to have them. What, then, 



THE FA THERL Y KINGD OM. 



281 



is the plan ? Now, you must not expect 
me to go into the dry details of political 
science. You may, however, expect from 
me the statement of leading principles — 
the declarations of those fundamentals 
needed in our place, and time. Pre- 
eminent among these is, as I have hinted, 
a governmental growth. You may, and 
perhaps others may, call it a govern- 
mental revolution. But the operations 
of my thought on the subject lead me to 
call it rather a governmental develop- 
ment, for, as I look at it it is really 
such. The former revolutions have all 
proved to be developments, and they 
all have been preparatives for this, the 
last, and best development. The growth, 
then, that we now need, the unfolding 
development we now require, is ahead of 
anything that yet has been in any land. 
It is to be the natural product of all that 
has preceded it, as the fruit of a tree is 
the product of the roots, trunk, and 
branches. This product is very beautiful. I 
do not know that you are quite ready for 
it. I am sure many of, if, indeed, not 
most of our legislators, are not at all ready 
for it. But if we get the people ripe, they 
will very soon produce ripe statesmen — 
the kind of governmental product that 
will solve the knotty problems of the 
times ; that will reconcile capital, and 
labor ; that will prevent capital from rob- 
bing labor, and that will establish peace 
and good- will among men, is the brotherly 
and fatherly form of government. 

The world has had the chieftain, and 
the king, and the plutocracy. All of them 
have proved plunderers. Now, we want 
no more of them. We want, and must 
have a government that will not only no 
more permit the robbery of the poor by 



the rich, but a government that will help 
the poor by the rich ; that will be a 
brotherly, fatherly government. Let us 
look a moment at the necessity for this. 
As the government of this country now 
stands, it secretly acts as the special friend 
of the rich. It permits the rich to pool 
their issues for the purpose of getting 
richer, at the expense of the poor. It is a 
notorious fact that money has a mighty 
influence in the State, and National cap- 
ital. In New Jersey, race-track gambling 
was legalized by the mone}^ of rich horse- 
racers. But it is not of such segregated 
instances we have most reason to com- 
plain. It is because the general network 
of legislation throughout the land is so 
adjusted as to facilitate, and encourage the 
rich, and the strong, and to impede, and 
discourage the poor, and the weak. I do 
not say that the government intends to do 
this. But I do say, the government does 
it. And that is worse than merely intend- 
ing it. And I do say, furthermore, that 
such invidious distinctions in regard to 
class never can be abolished by a mere jud- 
icial government. There should be justice 
in human government ; but there should 
be more than justice. This bleeding world 
needs law ; but it needs more than law. 
Law never can lift it, and bald justice will 
damn it. What we need, what we must 
have, is a government whose basis is jus- 
tice ; and whose life is love — a love that 
provides for the unfortunate ; that thinks 
of the failing ; that goes under the faint, 
and the impoverished ; that has its general 
texture, and tissue so set as to be soft, 
and indulgent, and helpful to the toiling 
masses, and the moiling poor ; a govern- 
ment whose design, and ambition are to 
give them happiness, instead of hardship; 



282 



THE FA THERL Y KING!) OM. 



to give them employment, instead of 
imprisonment ; to give them opportunity, 
instead of entanglement. The government 
we need now must have a heart, as well 
as a head ; a soul, as well as a science ; 
love, as well as law for every member 
of this Republic. The government that 
possesses these qualities will aim, not at 
cultivating monopolies for the fortunate 
few; not at facilitating commercial con- 
spiracies to enrich the unscrupulous rich, 
and impoverish the honest poor. But such 
a government as I have in mind will 
reverse all this. It will be provident, 
brotherly, fatherly toward all its children. 
Look at how a just, and loving father acts 
toward his children. Does he encourage 
and patronize plots laid by the elder, and 
exacting children, to enrich themselves at 
the expense of the younger, and more 
generous. Does he allow the smart schemer 
to invent, and execute conspiracies that 
subtley, secretly, scientifically, systematic- 
ally, and gradually, absorb the fortunes of 
the less avaricious, and more beneficent of 
his children, No ! gentlemen, no ! The 
strong hand of the go'od old father would 
be on the neck of that secularized, and 
conscienceless scoundrel in an instant. He 
would be told to get rich ; but not by 
stealthily robbing his brothers, and sisters. 
He would be told to go ahead, but not 
over the broken fortunes, and impover- 
ished lives of his own brethren, and whom 
he had mulcted of their possessions by 
clever trickery. What would a real, just, 
and loving father do if he caught a money- 
loving son at such perfidious business ? He 
would instantly stop him. He would 
regulate matters so that he could not 
repeat the villainy. He would make him 
disgorge his ill-gotten gain, and with it 



place those he had defrauded on a founda- 
tion of hope. If, then, an ordinary, earthly 
father would find means to prevent the 
robbery of one child by another, can we 
suppose that the aggregated wisdom of a 
commonweal like this is unable to devise 
laws by which the rich shall be prevented 
from robbing the poor. It is not for me 
to go into economical, and strategic 
details. These I leave to statisticians. 
But I will here state this general fact : 
that if we are to advance from the monop- 
olistic, and plutocratic swamp in which 
we are sinking, we shall have to interest 
ourselves in the affairs of this realm. We 
shall have to read, think, and act. We 
shall have to secure a clear, and compre- 
hensive view of the best governmental 
principles. We shall have to feed, and 
mature them. We shall have to teach 
them to others. We shall have to stand 
stoutly for them. We shall have to scatter 
them over the country. We shall have to 
select statesmen advanced, and Christian 
enough to champion them in high places, 
as well as low. This is a good place to 
begin. It was in Boston the first blow 
was struck which freed us from the bond- 
age of Britain. It was in Boston the first 
great arms were swung out in the air that 
snapped the chains of slavery. And it may 
be that it is to be in Boston that this new 
government which is to rend the chains of 
this plutocratic slavery is to receive its 
inaugural. Again I warn you against 
superficial clamor, and foolish, and vain 
vituperative measures. I warn you also 
against building on sandy, or flimsy foun- 
dations. I have read of no party, and I 
have seen no party, who yet satisfies me in 
regard to fundamentals. The fundamentals 
'must be secured, my friends. We must 



THE FA THERL Y KINGD OM 



283 



not let them be covered up by the debris 
of debate, nor swept away by the gush of 
superficial, and selfish agitators. " For 
if the foundations be destroyed, what 
shall the righteous do ?" I would not take 
a single step in the direction I am indicat- 
ing if I did not feel the firm foundations 
of eternal truth solidly beneath my feet. 
I will be no party to open up another 
frothy, seething maelstrom, in which men 
go down, after swirling round a little, and 
doing nothing but stirring up strife, and 
passion. I want, and will have none of 
that. But I want you, and all men, to see 
that the brotherly, fatherly government is 
coming ; that it is the latest, and the best. 
And as a John the Baptist, I cry from 
this sacred place, " Prepare ye its way." 
There is a great deal of discussion now 
going on regarding the Sermon on the 
Mount. I saw a symposium recently by the 
most eminent Doctors of Divinity who could 
be found to write on the subject. The 
ground that, almost, without exception, they 
took was that it is too ideal to be practical. 
This is a slander on our Saviour, in the 
House of His friends. Too ideal to be prac- 
tical, indeed? Then our Saviour must have 
been a fanatical and cruel mocker — he told 
us to do things he knew we could not do. 
Away with such exegetical offal. It is a 
disgrace to the men who wrote it, and a 
foul blot on the fair face of the most bril- 
liant sermon ever spoken. The Sermon 
on the Mount is practicable. It is not 
practicable, of course, where men are 
self -loving, self-seeking, and avaricious. 
It is not practicable where ministers 
are owned, body and boots, by mam- 
mon - worshippers, and monopolistic 
schemers. It is not practicable among 
sly, systematic, and scientific thieves, 



who, like the larva, live to wrap 
around their own bodies the silkeri threads 
spun from the nerves, and sinevss of 
the poor. But the Sermon on the Mount, 
thank God, is practicable among pure, un- 
selfish, and honest men. The Sermon on the 
Mount will be the Statute Book of the 
next New Growth in government. Get the 
people upon that platform, and then we 
will have our new brotherly, fatherly 
commonwealth. Let us get this new 
fatherly government that has been 
struggling to get a resting place in this 
world ever since the Christ announced its 
constitution, and then we will be upon 
that platform. And what a platform that 
will be, my friends ! The Nine Beatitudes 
will form the nine planks of progress — 
peace, plenty, humility, in place of 
selfish haughtiness of soul; mourning 
for the ills of others, instead of 
fattening on their unrequited toil ; 
unselfish meekness, and gentleness among 
men, instead of the mad, rude, jostling, 
damning rush to get ahead of somebody 
else, and grow rich at the expense of his 
poverty. A yearning, and longing after 
rectitude, filled to the full with personal 
and practical righteousness. A merciful 
sweetness, meeting men on every hand, 
sending out its jubilations over the happi- 
ness of universal man. A purity of heart 
through which, as in a mirror, we see our 
Father's love imaged, and personified in 
His human children. Blessed peace-makers 
who gather up the tangled skeins of the 
social fabric, and knit them into the body 
politic, with a skilful, and manly charity. 
Blessed ones who can stand persecution 
without wincing, because it is for the sake 
of an abundant, and abounding benevol- 
ence. Dear ones, so stately, and so true, 



284 



THE FA THERL Y KINGD 03L 



that revilings, and persecutions make 
them rejoice with exceeding joy, because 
" great is their reward in Heaven." 

Such a commonwealth as this, my 
friends, does Jesus seek to found. Such 
a commonwealth will be the salt of the 
earth, and the light of the world. Such 
a commonwealth will be a fulfilment of the 
visions of seers, and sao-es of all the as*es. 
Such a commonwealth will transcend mod- 
ern, Pharisaical, and aristocratic church- 
man ship as much as the glory of a sunny 
day exceeds in splendor the gloomy night. 
The spirit, and administration of such a 
commonweal will abolish anger and dia- 
tribe, clandestine licentiousness, private 
slander, public outbreak, and unjust exac- 
tions. The criminal lawyers, then, will 
be out of business, because then if any 
man sue another at the law, and take 
away his undercoat, he will be so kind 
that he will simply say, " All right, my 
brother ; I can get another. Take my 
overcoat, also." Society will be in such 
an exalted, and benevolent spirit that if a 
man comes along who does not know the 
way to a certain place, and request you to 
go with him a mile, you will mount 
your winged wheel, and fly with him 
twain. In the bicycle, as in all other 
labor-saving machines, is an extensive 
preparation and profound prophecy. Human 
beings will then be so expeditious, 
brotherly, rich, that if a man come along 
in want, and says to another, " Give me to 
eat," it will be instantly, and generously 
given, and another comes along who wants 
to borrow something, it will be loaned on 
the spot, with a glad heart, without going 
to a lawyer, and having a mortgage taken 
on your household goods. Xow, we have 
a commonwealth only in name ; then we 



will have one in reality. People will be 
so well off, so generous, and benevol- 
ent that they will not allow a less fortun- 
ate one to suffer distress. The temporal 
things will be of little account. People 
will then have learned that they are given 
for using, and not abasing. People will 
then be advanced enough to know that 
mere secular things are as the dust of the 
street compared with the inherent, and 
eternal value of a human life. They will 
take no more supreme pleasure in rearing 
lofty, and fine palaces to exclude the poor, 
and excite the jealousy of the rich. But 
they will take pleasure in rearing up mag- 
nificent human lives that will adorn 
humanity, and grace eternity. 

This, then, is my new commonwealth. I 
believe in it because I believe in Jesus. I 
believe in it, because His words, and ways 
are preparing for it ; because He has 
undertaken to found, and build it. We 
have been gradually coming up to it by 
many circuitous windings for the last 
1897 years. We are approaching its very 
verge, just as the Jews approached Can- 
aan, after all their wanderings. Moses 
may soon return with his hard, harsh, and 
exacting laws. Our Josuah is ready to 
lead us over Jordan. Jesus was always 
the best friend of the people, and the 
staunchest foe of oppression. He has not, 
and will never change. His policy is the 
same to-night as it was in Palestine. He 
then went about healing all manner of 
evils, and hurling his hurtling thunders 
ao-ainst all manner of evil doers. He is 
doing it now. Here in the People's Temple 
He has begun His special work of practi- 
cal progress for Boston, and New Eng- 
land. And just as in other days, the 
whole country took its clue from New 



THE FATHEBL Y KINGDOM. 



285 



England's capital, so it will once more. 
The land will hear again the resounding 
call of Christ, through the parted lips of His 
people. We shall march up out of this 
new bondage, shrewdly woven around 
us, by wily monopolists, heartless 
plutocrats, and political tricksters. Thus, 
and then, will the prayer of the peo- 
ple's best Friend be best answered, " Our 
Father !" " Thy kingdom come, Thy will 
be done on earth as it is in Heaven." 

Now, then, a few words about how this 
brotherly, fatherly commonwealth is com- 
ing. It is not coming through worldly 
agencies. It is not coming through phil- 
osophy, science, art, literature. It is not 
coming through policies, nor strategies, 
nor diplomacies. It is not coming through 
this society, nor that society of men 
banded together for selfish, mutual protec- 
tion. It is not coming on the plan, nor 
scale of any temporary, secular crisis. 
It is not coming through the wranglers, 
and agitators. It is not coming through 
this political party, nor that political party. 
If all the hosts of sinful men should club 
together, and invite this kingdom to come, 
it would still stay as long as they stayed in 
their sins. This commonwealth is not 
coming through either naturalistic means, 
nor socialistic means, nor scientific means. 
There is only one means through which this 
brotherly, fatherly kingdom is coming, and 
and that is through our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. And the rulers who recog- 
nize this great fundamental fact in their 
governmental policy aid this world to 
receive this kingdom. Mr. McKinley 
occupies a most strategic position at the 
present time. Archbishop Ireland, and 
Prelate Gibbons are trying to work him 
in the interests of Romanism. Thousands 



of officeholders, and office seekers are trying 
to work him in the interests of themselves. 
But if, with Pauline, and patriotic energy 
our new Napoleon of finance will wrench 
himself away from the selfish talons of 
these greedy cormorants, and let Jesus 
Christ work him in the interests of human- 
ity, then he will prove to be the greatest 
presidential success this land has ever had. 
And I am not without hope that this is 
what he will do. Mrs. McKinley has 
begun well by excluding intoxicating drink 
from the presidential table. He, and she 
are Methodists in good, and regular stand- 
ing. He could not conveniently be so 
without some personal experience of the 
forces of the Fatherly Kingdom. And if 
his experience of those most loving powers 
is only deep, wide and strong enough, he 
will see, and feel that they are the best cus- 
todians of his country. He will see that the 
last, and great ultimate government of 
men is to be through the Saviour of men, 
by the Sermon on the Mount. Let us all 
pray that God may give him this rich 
vision. Let us pray that God may not 
only bless him, but also his Cabinet, and 
the Congress, and Senate of our country. 
Let us pray that these legislative, and 
executive officers of the people may be 
made to see what will bring the greatest 
good to the greatest number. Let us pray 
that they may be made willing to legislate 
for the greatest good of the whole people. 
And if they do this, there will be no upris- 
ing of the people. There will be no need 
of revolution to secure the New Kingdom. 
It will come gradually, and slowly, like the 
inflowing of a Divine sea, as the people 
are prepared for it. It will get into the 
people, and under the people, and they 
shall find themselves sailing on an ocean 



286 



THE FATHERLY KINGDOM. 



of peaceful bliss toward the golden goal 
of nations. The Divine Commonweal is 
to come through the Divine Saviour. That 
Saviour is to live in men's hearts, and 
work in men's lives. When he does, selfish- 
ness, and avarice will die. The love 
of men will take the place of love of 
money. The millionaires will spend their 
money to save men. They will delight to 
spend their millions to save men spirit- 
ually. They will count this their highest 
joy. Legislation will change its base from 
the law of self-seeking diplomacy to the 
law of man-saving love. The poor man 
will feel the throb of the rich man's heart. 
Men will be sorry, instead of glad, when 
they get the best of a bargain. They will 
love their fellows as they love themselves. 
Selfish bartering, and unseemly chaffering 
will cease. The Sermon on the Mount 
will nullify the need of the Sermon on 
Sinai. The brotherly, and fatherly king- 
dom shall have come. This will be the 
best, last, longest, and largest government. 



There is nothing better behind it. It will 
never pass away. It will be perfect, full, 
and final. It will meet every human 
want, crush every human woe, and sup- 
ply every human need. God will glory 
in it. Man will glory in it. All evil will 
be kept out of it, and all good included in 
it. Here, then, is something worthy of 
your labors, prayers, and money. We are 
now in the thick of the battle for the com- 
ing of this commonwealth. Let everyone 
of us be a plumed Knight of the King. Let 
us throw ourselves, body and soul, time, 
and means, into the battle. Here in this 
Temple is a splendid place to take your 
stand in the great campaign. Put all you 
are, and have, in here. Bring all your 
friends, and forces in here. Place yourselves 
fully at the disposal of your Divine Com- 
mander, and after a little, if not on earth, 
yet in Heaven, you will rapturously sing, 
" Our Father, we thank Thee, Thy King- 
dom has come." Amen. 



Wealth Against Commonwealth 



" And they robbed all that came along that way." — Judges 9 : 25. 



BLESS God for the Eleventh Census 
of this Commonwealth. General Por- 
ter, President of this Census, has sent 
me a copy of each schedule as fast as it 
came from the press. He has kept me 
informed of all the industrial phases of the 
United States. It was my duty to keep 
posted on the facts of the great transition 
going on in this land. Our Saviour blamed 
the people of His times because they dis- 
cerned the signs of the sky, but did not 
discern the signs of the times. I did not, 
and do not want to be blameworthy in 
this way. And so I have kept comparing 
reports with former reports, with some 
alarming results. These results, with their 
causes, are all I have time to place before 
you. They are important to us, and to 
posterity. They show r that wealth has 
been passing from the majority to the min- 
ority. They show that there is a great 
monetary class arising in this land " who 
lade men with burdens grievous to be 
borne, and who themselves touch not the 
burdens with one of their ringers." They 
show that there has risen among us an 
army of men who, by " usury, and unjust 
gain, increase their substance," by "grind- 
ing the faces of the poor." And in order 
that you may see who, and what these 
men are, it is now necessary to give you a 
few approximate facts in numbers, as 
shown by the last census. These approxi- 
mate facts are well founded. They are 
taken from the impartial reports of the 
government officers. 

Fact No. I. — There are 4,047 families 
who own $12,000,000,000 in this country. 



This gives an average of $3,000,000 to 
each family. 

Fact No. II.— There are 1,092,218 fam- 
ilies who own $30,500,000,000 in this 
land, which gives each family an average 
of $28,735. 

Fact No. III.— There are 4,994,091 
families, who own $14,560,939,343, which 
gives an average to each family of $2,915. 

Fact No. IV.— There are 6,599,796 fam- 
ilies who own only $2,795,898,000, which 
gives an average of but $418 to each fam- 

Thus you see there are ^OJf.7 families 
who own about five times as much as 
6,599,796 other families do. This is a very 
bad omen. It presents a bad outlook for 
the longevity of our country. It was when 
wealth had passed from the people to the 
plutocrats that ancient Egypt fell. It w r as 
when wealth became concentrated in the 
hands of the Archons of Athens that Greece 
began to decay. It was when wealth became 
congested in the hands of the patricians 
that ancient Rome was paralyzed, and 
commenced her mournful decline and fall. 
Is history to repeat itself on this side of 
the world ? Is this young land, with les- 
sons in historic light, flaming from the ruins 
of the old world, going to go heedlessly on 
to a similar ruin ? It certainly shall, my 
friends, if the poor continue to be crushed 
by the rich. It certainly shall if capital 
will have no regard to labor. But capital 
shall have regard for labor. The rich shall 
not continue to dominate, and grind the 
poor, for, by the help of God, the people 
will not permit it. The promissory glories 



292 



WEAL TH A GAINST COMMONWEAL TIL 



of this country are too great ; the designs 
of God in this land are too evident ; the 
science of good government, and the 
science of almost everything else are 
becoming too well understood for us, as 
a people, to permit exclusive, selfish, and 
avaricious men to continue to absorb the 
hard-earned money of the people. I believe 
in America because I believe in God. She 
is His ultimatum to the race. There 
is no other great country to be discovered. 
The race is now taking its final stand, for 
its last trial, on the arena of this new 
World. It has been a failure in every 
other. It shall not be a failure here, 
unless we prove dastards in the battle, 
and retreat before the foe. 

The fact that nine per cent, of this 
so-called commonwealth owns seventy-one 
per cent, of the property I knoio is a fear- 
ful menace. Its discouraging, and cor- 
rupting force is formidable, and threaten- 
ing. The concentration of wealth, which 
means the concentration of corruption 
among the rich, and of misery, apathy, 
anarchy, discontent, disloyalty, and revolt 
among the poor, is appalling. The sud- 
denness with which this has come upon us 
is startling ! ! But the very fact that it is 
so startling is going to rouse the people to 
look to their rights, and claim their privi- 
leges. There are thousands of brains 
burning in all parts of the land already. 
There are millions of men who, when prop- 
erly roused by the slogan call those thou- 
sands of burning thinkers shall utter, shall 
arise, and in their manhood claim exemp- 
tion from the cruelties of concentered 
wealth, by forming for this country a 
paternal, and not a monopolistic govern- 
ment. I have always voted with the pur- 



est party I could find (and that is not say- 
ing much) since I was naturalized under 
the sweet, and soothing shield of Col- 
umbia. But I will not say that, as gov- 
ernmental affairs now are, I would be 
averse to trying a new party on a different 
basis from that on which either of the 
great parties now are exploiting. Although 
I am not a statesmen by profession, I have 
a platform in my heart, which I am going 
to tell you of before I get through with 
these discourses. If I were a statesman, I 
would go up and down the land proclaim- 
ing that platform. But, being a preacher, 
I shall proclaim it from this pulpit, and let 
those whose business it is diplomatically 
to take its several planks, and place them 
beneath the sinking feet of our people, do 
so. The discussion of that platform, how- 
ever, I reserve for another occasion. But, 
as a preparation for its presentation, let us 
look at some of the leading causes that 
have brought about the corrupting, and 
disaffecting concentration of wealth I have 
referred to. 

We have seen that nine per cent, of our 
people own seventy-one per cent, of the 
wealth. How has this so suddenly come 
to pass? How did we come to have 
over 4,047 millionaire families in so short 
time ? Thirty years ago, a millionaire was 
quite a refreshing novelty ; now he is quite 
a common creation. In order to show how 
we revert to the United States' census. 
825 of the famous 4,047 became million- 
aires, not by the honest labors of the hand, 
but by the speculative forces of the brain, 
and insatiable greed of the heart. They 
became millionaires by what Mr. Holmes* 
the government official, calls " Land 
Exploitation." Not by farming it, mark 



WEAL TH A GAINS T COMMON-WEALTH. 



you, but by exploiting it. That is, run- 
ning ahead, and taking up large tracts at 
feast possible pay, and then selling at largest 
possible profit to the poor pioneer. Thus, 
as the text states, " They robbed all that 
came along that way " — 410 of this famous 
4,047 became millionaires, according to 
the census, by tricky, and artful monop- 
olies. That is, they got up monopolies 
on sugar, and wheat, and oil, and beef, and 
railways, and canals, and telegraphs, and 
telephones, and electric lights, waterworks, 
patents, and copyrights, and thus " They 
robbed all that came along that way." 

Then 2,065 of them became millionaires 
by trade, and manufactures, and land 
securities. That is, they bought goods at 
lowest rates, and sold them at the highest. 
They made fabrics, and got the govern- 
ment to protect them by a high tariff, and 
sold their wares for nearly twice as much 
as they cost them. They found a poor 
fellow who wanted a farm. They told him 
they would back him, and they backed 
him by putting a mortgage on his back, at 
ten to fifteen per cent, per annum. Or they 
met a poor brother in financial distress, 
and they shaved his note for him for 
twenty to forty per cent., and put the 
shavings in their pockets. Thus " they 
robbed all that came along that way." 

Then there were 536 of them became 
millionaires by interest, profit, and specu- 
lation in bonds, and the balance in a 
variety of ways. They would give you a 
mortgage on your house, if you would pay 
them rents, and then when you could pay 
ho more, take the house. They took out 
government bonds, finding the govern- 
ment in a fix during, and after the late 
war. They put it strongly to the repre- 



sentatives of the people, so that from 1862 
to 1868 Congress ordered bonds issued to 
the amount of $2,049,975,700. The amount 
received for the same was only $1,371,- 
424,238 ; so that the purchasers of these 
bonds, who were doing the government a 
marvelous favor (?) had the snug little 
sum of $678,551,462 to divide among each 
other. And then they did the government 
another little favor by receiving $2,538,- 
000,000 as interest. And then, after 
favoring the government in this other nice 
little manner, they favored it once more 
by receiving $58,000,000 in premiums, 
and finally wound up the polite little man- 
oeuvre by accepting very graciously 
$1,756,000,000 of the principal. So that, 
for $1,371,424,238 that they invested as a 
great favor to the country, to help it out 
of its embarrassments, these wonderful 
patriots received $5,130,551,462. It was 
so kind of them to give one dollar away 
to save the country, and take five back to 
save themselves ! ! ! " " Thus they robbed 
all that came along that way." Now, 
we might let the past pass, and say no 
more about it, and strike out for the shore 
in the future. 

But such has been the systematic, and 
established character of the robbery of 
Labor by Capital, of the poor by the rich, 
that it is not only still going on, but going 
on now more than ever before in the his- 
tory of the nation. 

I need only call your attention to a few 
facts in order to demonstrate this as clearly 
as a geometrician 'demonstrates a problem 
in geometry. 

We have 160,000 miles of railroads in 
our land that cost $4,000,000,000 to build. 
But what is the present capitalization, 



294 



WEAL TIT A GAINST COMMONWEALTH. 



89,600,000,000? What does this mean? 
It means simply that the speculative, and 
greedy scoundrels put in at least $4,000,- 
000,000 of water, and when you take a 
trip from here to New York, or anywhere 
else, you are paying one-half your fare for 
that watered stock. Thus they rob all 
that go along the railroad way. 

The banking business robs the people in 
almost as notorious, and sly a manner as 
the railroads. The National Banks, 
so-called, rob you scientifically. The total 
capital stock of all the National Banks, 
from Sept. 1, 1889, to Sept. 1, 1890, by 
Comptroller Lacey, is reported at $615,- 
405,515, for the first half of that fiscal 
year, and at $634,773,746 for the latter 
half. Thus the average capital was $625,- 
089,630. The gross earnings for the year, 
$144,614,053, which is more than 23 per 
cent. It is no wonder that the stock of 
these banks runs away above par. The 
Chemical Bank of New York is said to 
yield $4,000 for each $100 originally 
invested, and other banks run above par 
far into the hundreds; ■ 

I do not wonder that these banks reap 
such usurious revenues. You place your 
money there for convenience and safe 
keeping ; but you get no interest, if a tran- 
sient depositor — they take that. That's 
what they like. But it does not belong to 
them ; it belongs to you. And so, like the 
railroads, the banks, with all their polite 
way of doing it, " rob all that come along 
that way." 

Now, I want to pay my respects to the 
manufacturers. We should be able to be 
proud of them. They are a productive 
class. They are sometimes a generous 
class. They have done much to develop 



industrialism. They are, as a rule, respect- 
able men, but as I have, through the cen- 
sus, paid a visit to them, and looked into 
their balance sheets, I find they are, for 
1890, away ahead in systematic swindling. 
In New York city I find the percentage of 
profit on capital invested is 28 per cent.; 
Chicago, 29 per cent.; Philadelphia, 22 per 
cent.; Brooklyn, 27 per cent.; St. Louis, 
26 per cent.; Boston, 24 per cent.; Balti- 
more, 28 per cent.; San Francisco, 25 per 
cent.; Cincinnati, 37 per cent.; Cleveland, 
23 per cent. The amount of capital 
invested in these ten cities in manufac- 
turing is $1,746,248,838. The value of 
manufactured products above cost of 
wages, raw materials, and miscellaneous 
expenses is $475,494,709. This was the 
clear profit for 1890, and this makes the 
profits average a little over 27 per cent. 

The capital invested throughout the 
country in manufactures amounts to 
$6,524,375,305, and if it is all yielding 27 
per cent, on the investment, as in the ten 
cities named, then there are a large num- 
ber of young millionaires coming up. 
There will be a new brood of them each 
year. But who makes these millionaires ? 
The boys, and girls, the men, and women, 
who, with pale faces, and gaunt, and hun- 
gry looks, working through long hours, in 
fcEtid atmosphere, for poor pay, and early 
graves. These are the people (God have 
pity on us) who, by their nerve, and brain, 
and blood, are making millionaires. And 
if they amounted to anything good when 
made there would be less reason for indig- 
nation ; but, as a rule, when you make a 
millionaire, you unmake a man, and pro- 
duce a monster. And furthermore, not 
only the poor factory folks have 



WEALTH AGAINST COMMONWEALTH. 



295 



to contribute to that usurious '21 per cent, 
profit, but you also, who buy the 
goods, have to pay your share. The 
thousands and millions who buy and wear 
their goods have to pay for this exorbi- 
tant profit. It makes no difference who 
comes, white, black, poor, or unfor- 
tunate, they all have to pay toll to these 
lords of production, for " they rob all that 
come along that way." 

Now, you will notice whom they rob — 
their brothers, and sisters, their brethren, 
who should have equal rights with them- 
selves — the people who should own America 
as much as they. 

When Daniel Drew, whom I knew very 
well personally, was owner of the Hudson 
River steamboat line, he came aboard his 
own boat at Albany, to go down the river. 
An inquisitive Yankee went up to the old 
man, and inquired impertinently, " Do you 
belong to this boat ?" "No," said Uncle 
Daniel, " this boat belongs to me." I want 
to say that the great Ship of State belongs 
to you, and you will be held responsible 
for keeping this ship clean, and well-rigged, 
and officered. You will be held responsible 
in the eyes of the world, and of future gen- 
erations, for permitting an oligarchic pluto- 
cracy to rise up, and strike down the com- 
mon, hard-working, honest people. And 
if there are any of you here who have 
helped to bring about this sad condition of 
affairs, you should be ashamed of it, and 
begin at the other end of things. There 
was a poor fellow once who was deluded 
by the politicians into voting for ten-cent 
wool. Afterwards he went out to help a 
neighbor during sheep-shearing time. The 
neighbor gave him a sheep to shear, and 
after a little looked up from his own work 



to the new workman, when much to his 
amazement he saw he was shearing away 
at the tail. The sheep owner cried out, 
" What do you begin at the tail for ? The 
proper place to begin to shear a sheep is at 
the head." " Ah," said the man, " I know 
it, sir ; but ever since I voted for that ten- 
cent wool I'm ashamed to look an honest 
sheep square in the face." 

And so should it be with us after voting 
for a labor -impoverishing government. We 
should feel like getting to the rear, and 
like being ashamed to look an honest wo rk- 
ingman square in the face. 

We have seen the number of poor peo- 
ple who, by being plundered by the rich, 
are becoming poorer. We have seen the 
great American golden-headed trinity — 
the railroads, the banks, and the manufac- 
turers — who, with ever-craving maws, are 
swallowing up the wealth of the people. 

And now for the remedy. When the 
millenium comes, the evil will be remedied. 
But the millenium has not come. Such is 
the selfishness of men and women at the 
present time that the first question they 
ask in regard to any enterprise is, " How 
much is there in it for us ?" Not, how 
much truth, and virtue, and grace is there 
in it for us, but how much money, or 
power, or promotion ? That means how 
much sordid, secular self -gratification is 
there in it for us. If there is evidence of 
much, they go in, no matter whom it 
hurts ! If there is evidence of nothing, 
they stay out, no matter whom it hinders. 

The fact is, the majority of people serve 
Mammon, and, therefore, do not seek to 
serve each other. They who serve each 
other serve God. They who serve them- 
selves serve mammon. The highest author- 



296 



WEALTH AGAINST COMMONWEALTH. 



ity says "Ye cannot serve God and Mam- 
mon." Proper service of each other is but 
another name for proper service of God. 
" Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of 
these ye did it unto Me." Leigh Hunt 
catches the spirit of this central idea of 
Christianity in his " Abou Ben Adhem." 
The devoted daughter of our glorified 
countryman, William Walter Phelps, 
recited it for me before the painting in the 
picture gallery, in their home at Tea Neck, 
New Jersey. She spoke it in such a way 
as left its lines of fire on my memory, — 

"Abou Ben Aclhern (may his tribe increase) 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw, within the moonlight of his room, 
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold. 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the presence in the room he said, 
" What writest thou ?" The vision raised its 
head, 

And with a look made all of sweet accord, 
Answered, "The names of those who love the 
Lord." 

"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, 
not so," 

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 
But cheerily still, and said, "T pray thee then 
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men." 
The angel w T rote, and vanished. The next night 
It came again, with a great wakening light, 
And showed the names whom love of God had 
blessed, 

And lo! Ben Adhem' s name led all the rest." 

Now, my contention is that, as the gov- 
ernment of a man should be based on the 
love power, so should the government of 
large numbers of men. The governmental 
question, therefore, should be, not what 
is there in it for a few men, but what is 
there in it for all men ? Not, what shall it 
do for the strong, and the enterprising, and 
the crafty ; but, What shall it accomplish 



for the weak, and the poor, and the sim- 
ple, and all the classes that lie between ? 
Our postal service is a splendid illustration 
of what I mean. It is impartial, efficient, 
and a mutual blessing to the whole fabric 
of society. It offers no favors to the rich 
that it not does present to the poor. There 
are a number of other great enterprises now 
carried on by a few men for their own 
interest, and in which they have grown, 
and are growing, plutocratically rich, at 
the expense of the poor, and the middle 
classes, that could be far better conducted by 
the general government, without impover- 
ishing all below a certain line, and enriching 
all above a certain line. These great enter- 
prises are familiar to everyone of you. We 
are not members of any Fabian society, 
nor socialistic order, nor anarchic class. 
But we think, and have a right to think, 
and speak what we think. That is what 
thought, and tongue are for. We have a 
right to condemn what ought not to be, 
and to commend what ought to be. We 
have no right to praise a thing because it 
is popular, nor to blame a thing because it 
is unpopular. The only thing we have a 
right to do is to praise what is good, and 
blame what is bad, and to do our best to 
overthrow what is evil, and establish what is 
equitable. This is the natural, and Divine 
right of every true man. Now, then, we 
have seen in the survey we have made 
of the condition of public affairs in our 
country, that the great public industries 
have been, and are being operated to 
enrich the operators, and impoverish the 
operated. But the good things of this 
country are for all the people, and not for 
an exploiting, shrewd, and speculating 
part of them. Therefore, I claim it would 



WEALTH AGAINST COMMONWEALTH. 



297 



be well, and wise to take into serious con- 
sideration the advisability of taking out of 
the hands of the rich speculators, and the 
opulent monopolists, and the avaricious 
plutocrats, the great public enterprises in 
which all the people are interested, and let 
the general government conduct them for 
the comfort, convenience, and welfare of 
all classes, and grades of society. Let the 
whole people pocket the profits of the 
great institutions they have built up. You 
can see the reasonableness and righteous- 
ness of this by looking at it from almost 
any philanthropic, utilitarian, or Christian 
view point. 

But you reply, " Is not our system of 
government fixed ? Must not we go accord- 
ing to the established laws of the land ?" 
Yes ; you should obey the laws, so long as 
they are laws. But remember, you are 
the people, and the people can modify, or 
even radically change a law in this coun- 
try when it is proving uniformly injurious 
to the community. And, furthermore, you 
not only can change such laws, but it is 
your solemn, and important duty to change 
them. You cannot go guiltless, and let 
laws remain in vogue that are distressing, 
and impoverishing 99 out of every 100 
fellow-citizens. The statistics I have given 
you from the late census show that such 
distressing, and needless impoverishment 
is steadily going on. And who are you 
that you should stand aloof, and let it go 
forward. The fact, my countrymen, is 
simply this : the American Republic has 
gone forward to such a stage of morality, 
and intelligence that we are now nearly 
ready for a radical revision of our govern- 
mental system. The majority of the men 



who go to Congress do not see this. The 
rich, and the learned, rolling in their luxr 
uries, do not want to see it. But the 
thinking, reading, believing, praying poor 
and middle classes do see it, and feel it, 
from the core of their hearts to the tips of 
their fingers. If I were statesman instead 
of preacher, I would particularize, and 
speak of the great public industrial institu- 
tions of our Commonwealth that must be 
utterly changed before we can hope for 
universal justice, and fraternity. They 
have grown up in stormy, and transitional 
times. It probably was necessary that they 
should be under the fostering care of sel- 
fishness, to bring them up out of baby- 
hood. But now that they have grown to 
boyhood, it is fitting that they should be 
taken out of the talons of personal rapac- 
ity, and placed in the paternal care of the 
general government for the general good. 
Some of you who do not know me, I pre- 
sume, are saying, " You are a socialist, 
nihilist, populist, anarchist, all in one !" 
Well, that is because you do not under- 
stand yet my platform. My platform was 
not reared by socialists, nihilists, anarchists, 
nor even populists. But it was laid nearly 
nineteen hundred years ago by my Sav- 
iour, in His Sermon on the Mount. And 
in the lustre of that sermon, I have con- 
cluded that this country should have a 
divinely impartial government. And these 
4,047 of ever-increasing multi-millionaires 
have been a privileged class long enough. 
You say, " What do you mean to insin- 
uate, sir ? Do you mean to say that the 
property of rich men should be forcibly 
distributed by the government among the 
poor ?" I mean to say no such thing. Many 



298 



WEALTH AGAINST COMMONWEALTH. 



of these rich men, and, indeed, perhaps 
most of them, have obtained their money 
legally, according to the laws of this land. 
They, therefore, have a legal right to it. 
It is theirs before the eye of the law under 
which they accumulated it. Therefore, 
let them keep it. Let no violence be used 
to deprive them of it. But, for the sake 
of suffering humanity, let this be done : let 
the great leading sources of wealth be so 
adjusted by law that they shall cease to 
pour themselves out into the coffers of 
men who have too much already, and 
pass by the men who have too little. To 
be plain, let government take the great 
wealth-bearing public monopolies, and 
work them in the interests of the people ; 
turn their money-making side away from 
the plutocrats, and toward the people. Let 
the general government conduct the bank- 
ing system as it conducts the postal sys- 
tem, in the interests of all the people. Let 
the general government conduct the rail- 
roads as it conducts the postal system, in 
the interests of the whole people. Let the 
general government exercise such a super- 
vision of the manufactories, and of the 
city street car, and water systems, as will 
divert their profits to the welfare of all, 
instead of to the enrichment of some. The 
working men have produced these great 



national powers — they should share in 
the proceeds. No man, nor number of 
men, under any specious title, should be 
permitted to appropriate them. If a man 
" plant a vineyard, he should eat of the 
fruit of that vineyard." If a man rear a 
flock, he should " partake of the milk of 
that flock." And if workingmen invent, 
and establish great public, and beneficent 
systems, government should see to it that 
the smart, shrewd schemers do not deprive 
them of the rightful fruits of their labor. 
I shall be satisfied if only affairs can be so 
arranged that each man " shall eat of the 
fruit of his own doings" and not the fruit 
of some other man's doings, while that 
other man is in a state of starvation, per- 
haps. 

For two things let us labor, vote, and 
pray : the conversion of government to a 
consideration of the welfare of the middle < 
classes, and of the poor, and for the con- 
version of the hearts of the rich, so that 
they will see that money is a trust, and not 
a treasure : a loan, and not a possession^ 
and that it is by them to be used for the 
good of their fellow-men. Then shall the 
words of our text be altered, " And they 
enriched all that came along that way." 
Amen. 



Miseries of Wealth Against Commonwealth. 



** Go to, now ye rich men, weep and howl, for your miseries that are coming upon you." — 

J AMES v : 1. 

" The destruction of the poor is their poverty."— Proverbs x : 15. 



AM not here to set class against class ; 
but to set right against wrong. I de- 
spise scoundrelism, whether in rich or 
poor. I, therefore, do not pour out the 
scath of my indignation upon men because 
they are rich ; but because they are 
wretched. The good rich man I honor as 
much as the good poor man. From this 
pulpit I propose to hold the scales of equity 
in impartial balance. This is the people's 
pulpit, and from it they shall be protected. 
The pulpit is established for this purpose. 
It has priority over the journalist and the 
statesman. Both must take their clue 
from God's ambassadors, if they secure 
the right clue. It is God's ambassadors 
who have, under Him, been instrumental 
in making both statesmanship and jour- 
nalism successf ul. It is true you would 
not suppose so, to hear them talk. That, 
however, alters not the case. The final 
umpire of appeal is eternal power. 
That eternal power is God. That 
power in legal, and spiritual affairs He 
immediately dispenses through His com- 
missioners. Those commissioners are His 
fearless, and faithful ministers. I receive 
my messages from Headquarters. I will 
be guided by none other. These messages 
are broad, and impartial. They are for all 
the people, in every condition. Just now 
I am emphasizing some of the relations of 
the people to each other. Strictly speak- 
ing, our theme is, " The ruinous results of 
the robbery of poor men by rich men." 

I. Let us notice, therefore, the ruinous 
effects of ill-gotten wealth on the rich man 



himself. The Scriptures are emphatic on 
this theme, " He that getteth riches, and 
not by right, shall leave them in the midst 
of his days, and in the end shall be a fool." 
" He that by usury, and unjust gain 
increaseth his substance ; he shall gather 
it for him that shall pity the poor." " His 
children are far from safety, and they are 
crushed in the gate. Neither is there any 
to deliver them. The robber swalloweth 
up their substance." " Getting treasure by 
a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and 
fro of them that seek death." u I was 
envious at the foolish when I saw the 
prosperity of the wicked. Their eyes 
stand out with fatness. They have more 
than heart could wish. They corrupt, and 
speak wickedly concerning oppression. 
They have set their mouth against Heaven, 
and their tongue walketh through the 
earth. When I sought to know this, it 
was too painful for me till I went into the 
sanctuary. Surely Thou didst set them 
in slippery places ; Thou castest them down 
into destruction as in a moment." And, 
finally, " They that w r ill (that is, are deter- 
mined to be rich at all hazards) be rich, 
fall into temptation, and a snare, and into 
many foolish, and hurtful lusts, which 
drown men in perdition, for the love of 
money is the root of all evil, which, while 
some have coveted after, have erred from 
the faith, and have pierced themselves 
through with many sorrows." Such are 
the declarations of that infallible Word of 
God, from whose pages all true legislative 
measures among men have sprung. 



304 



Mise?ies of Wealth Against Commonwealth. 



We are confirmed in this terrible 
description of the ruinous effects of ill- 
gotten gain on rich men by our observa- 
tion, and experience. Experience, and 
observation show that riches wrongfully 
obtained are among the worst possible 
curses for those who obtain them. Not 
that they are bad in themselves. Not that 
they are necessarily corrupting, and mis- 
leading, for riches are a great blessing 
when properly obtained, and used. But 
they are a great curse to the man who 
obtains them dishonestly, and uses them 
selfishly. The very fact that he secures 
them dishonestly is demonstration that he 
does not know how to use them. If he is 
exacting, usurious, avaricious, he is also 
likely to he passionate, and corrupt in 
other matters. And so his ill-gotten gain 
feeds the flames of the evil that is within 
him, and drives him all the more rapidly 
to destruction. You all have observed 
the effect of sudden and disreputable for- 
tune upon men. You know how it inflates 
their pride, and swells their vanity. It 
makes them think themselves just so much 
superior to their fellows. If they have ten 
hundred thousand dollars, they often think 
themselves of ten hundred times more 
importance than the man who has noth- 
ing. And so they become pompous, 
haughty, and exclusive. They measure 
men by the money standard. If a man 
has no money, he is not fit company for 
them. He may have intellect, learning, 
religion, character, reputation ; but if he 
have not the yelloio dust, he is only on 
sufferance when in golden society. He is 
tolerated, not enjoyed. He is looked upon 
as a poor parasite, who may, by his polite- 
ness, be trying to prepare the way to bor- 
row a little of the " good for everything," 



and so rich men, especially when they are 
wrongfully rich, hold their fellows aloof. 
They look upon them with suspicion. 
They treat them with arrogance, or the 
silence of contempt. A gulf is created by 
the ill-gotten wealth between the rich 
man's palace and the poor man's cottage. 
Brotherhood is broken up , pbilanthrophy 
is torn down, and jealousy, and hatred 
grow on their ruins. The bad man, 
corrupted by riches, grows into a misan- 
thrope, retires inside his wealth, which is 
his " strong city," and looks scornfully out 
upon the very men who helped him to 
rear that city. " The rich man's wealth 
is his strong city." He has bonds ; he 
has stocks ; he has houses, lands, and 
greenbacks in abundance. He can never 
come to want. What need he care for 
anybody. His nest is well feathered. He 
is all right, and that's all he cares for. All 
he now wants is to be left alone. He has 
gotten his cherries, and he just wants now 
to have people attend to their own busi- 
ness, and let him enjoy them. But, as 
things are constructed in this universe, 
the rich poor creature cannot he let alone. 
Time won't let him alone. Sickness won't 
let him alone. Death, and judgment won't 
let him alone, and by Heaven's help we 
10011H let him alone. He has a duty here 
he is failing to discharge, and it is better 
for him to hear about it now than amid the 
resounding thunders of the day of judg- 
ment. He has a talent, which is money, 
that he has hid (as a dog his bone) in the 
earth, for fear he may need it some future 
day, and it is better for him now to hear 
the trumpet tones from Heaven, and 
repent, and come forth, and use his hidden 
talent for his race than it is to go on and 
hear the final sentence a few days hence. 



Miseries of Wealth Against Commonwealth. 



305 



" Take the talent from him, and give it to 
him that hath ten talents, and cast ye the 
unprofitable servant into outer darkness, 
where there shall be weeping, and wailing, 
and gnashing of teeth." Furthermore, 
ill-gotten, and misused money not only 
makes a man mean, and exclusive, and 
selfish, and proud. It also opens up 
avenues for the cultivation of his 
worst passions. A man who has plenty 
of money can drink, and drab all 
he desires. He can gratify his most 
sensuous passions to the full. This is, 
undoubtedly, the worst that could happen 
him. It enfeebles his intellect. It ossifies 
his heart. It corrupts his spirit. It sears 
his conscience, drains his body, and damns 
his soul. His worst passions become tigers, 
ruthless, and insatiate. They prey upon 
his graces till they all are gone. They 
gnaw at his virtues till none are left. They 
make his soul a den of corruption, from 
which the ichorous putridity exudes on 
every thing, and person around. He is 
captured in his own strong city, by his 
own strong enemies, whom he has been 
fostering as friends. He is bound hand, 
and foot. He has no faith, love, nor joy. 
He is the victim of gloom, the votary 
of despair. He is ripe for the eternal 
burning. He is unfit for earth. He is 
more unfit for Heaven. His strong castle 
keeps the doctors, and the pharmacies 
engaged for a time. But lo ! one clay, 
through his sin-bleared eyes, he sees a 
strange, strong figure approach his 
gate. He moves steadily up, and stealthily 
on, till he reaches the citadel. He knocks 
upon the castle door. That knock rings 
through the palace corridors, and up into 
the sick man's room. There is no Bible in 
that room, no Jesus, no hope, no Heaven. 



The sick man hears the reverberation of 
that first knock over all his being. He 
looks wistfully at the physicians, and' 
valet, and says, "Keep out that visitor. 
He has come for me. I am not fit to go. 
Keep him out, oh keep him out." But all 
the strength of the rich man's castle cannot 
keep him out. The physicians, and nurses 
fly around, and shut the windows, and 
barricade the doors, and bolt the shutters. 
But 'tis all in vain. Through unseen panels 
the stealthy stranger steals in upon the 
man who is now his victim. He, like a 
shadow, sweeps up the stairs, and stands 
in his ghostly aspect before the rich man's 
eyes. " 'Tis Death! Oh God, I am 
dying, going! Help! Help! Millions 
for an hour of time ! ! " But all the mil- 
lions in the world cannot give him an 
hour now, and amid the convulsive spasms 
of remorse, fear, and direful dread, he 
hears the appalling words, " Give an 
account of thy stewardship, for thou may- 
est be no longer steward ! ! " The rich 
man's city has collapsed. The tears of 
orphans, and the wails of widows could 
not invade it. The cries of the poor, and 
unfortunate could not enter. The cry of 
the Church for help to save the world 
were not heard, nor heeded in it. But 
now the reckoning cry of God convulses 
it, and scatters it, as He cries, " Give up 
possession, for your riches are corrupted, 
and your garments are moth-eaten ; your 
gold, and silver is cankered, and the rust 
of them shall be a witness against you, and 
shall eat your flesh as it were fire." — 
James v : 2, 3. Such are the terrible 
effects, my friends, of the robbery of the 
poor by the rich, on the rich themselves, 
who commit the robbery. 

II. Now, I propose to show the effects 



306 



Miseries of Wealth Against Commonwealth. 



of the robbery of the poor by the rich, on 
the poor, who are victims of the robbery. 
The text says, " The destruction of the 
poor is their poverty." I have made per- 
sonal investigations on this subject in 
twenty-six of the leading countries of the 
globe. I have found the text pre-eminently 
true in everyone of them. In the British 
Empire, where the sweltering masses have 
for centuries been held down by an oli- 
garchic landlordism ; where workmen 
have been obliged to pay much of their 
earnings to aristocracy ; where poorly 
clad, fed, and housed, the operatives, and 
farmers have led a mere meagre exist- 
ence, " the destruction of the poor is their 
poverty." In France, Spain, Germany, 
Italy, and every other European realm 
the same is true. But it is not till we 
cross into Asia that we see the words of the 
text most terribly illustrated. In Turkey, 
with its exorbitant, and irregular system 
of taxation, the poor Mohammedans exper- 
ience that " the destruction of the poor is 
their poverty." In India, with her impov- 
erished myriads, where the people were 
first crushed by the swordsmen, and then 
plundered by the Brahmans, and then 
looted by the imperious exactions of 
Akbar, and Shaw Jehan, and now mulcted 
by gold-gathering Britain, and starving by 
thousands of famine, " the destruction of 
the poor is their poverty." In China, with 
her uncounted hordes, where the rich 
mandarins bear sway ; where wages are 
so low, and rulers so high ; where life is so 
cheap, and money so dear ; where oppres- 
sion is the rule, and equity the exception ; 
where beneath the hard, harsh exactions 
of a traditional tyranny, the poor exist for 
the rich, truly " the destruction of the 
poor is their poverty." In every auto- 



cratic, and oligarchic land the people have 
been the sufferers. In every land where 
authority, wealth, and power have been 
transferred from the people to the princes, 
the masses have been defrauded. But 
America, my countrymen, is not a land 
where princedoms prevail. This is a 
Commonwealth, and not a kingdom. This 
is a nation which has grown up under the 
ensign of equality. Every man is equal to 
every other man, if he act as well. Under 
this standard, millions have come from the 
Old World, and grouped themselves in 
brotherly array. Here no feudal lords, no 
exacting barons, no tyrannous king-power 
has been transferred from the throne to 
the people. Their will is law ; their desire 
monarch ; their vote king. But whilst 
equality, and self-rule are the acknowl- 
edged fundamentals of our government, 
and whilst, under that government, there 
has been the greatest human development, 
mechanical growths, and scientific advance- 
ment that ever have transpired on this 
earth ; yet out of these very progressions 
have been other growths, which at this 
particular period need attention. There is 
growing rapidly up among us an oligarchy 
of wealth absorbents, a plutocracy of 
wealth winners who have been stealthily 
laying plans to obtain power through sys- 
tematic, and strong monopolies. These 
strong, and systematized monopolies are tak- 
ing the names of corporations, and trusts. 
These so-called trust corporations are 
affecting every interest of the whole people. 
They are affecting everything you eat, drink, 
wear, and do. The trinity that take the 
lead as representatives are the Railroads, 
the Banks, and the great Manufactories. 
But there are thousands of other smaller 
businesses who from these have taken 



Miseries of Wealth Against Commonwealth. 



307 



their clue, and are spreading, like a huge 
octopus gathering up in its ruthless ten- 
tacles all the great interests of this coun- 
try! And there is not a man, woman, or 
child of moderate means in the land but is 
feeling more or less the strangling effects 
of it. And I say honestly, that if this kind 
of corporate and monopolistic money- 
getting and money-keeping is continued, 
we are going to have worse times among 
the middle classes, and the poor than we 
would have under a monarchical form of 
government, with all its tyrannies, because 
in a monarchic government we can see 
what the matter is ; we can see where the 
pressure comes from ; we can locate the 
source of trouble, just as the Colonists did 
under George III. But in the complex, 
and multiplex conditions of monopolistic 
and scientific robberies that are growing 
up on every hand, it is difficult to make 
the locations, and when you have made 
them you find you have a multitude of 
hidden, and entrenched enemies to fight, 
in every direction. The people cannot 
combine against such an everywhere-pre- 
sent, and yet everywhere -hidden network 
of antagonisms as this. And, further- 
more, the interests of the people are so 
interwoven with these various robbing 
machines, that they are afraid to move 
against them lest they move against them- 
selves. Some say to me : " Dr. Brady, 
why do you talk so ? You are setting all 
the rich men in Boston against you." I 
say to such, that if I shall set all the rich 
men in the world against me, I am going 
to cry out when I see the great truncheon 
of a heartless, and pitiless power about to 
fall crushingly on the heads of the people. 
The people of America cannot afford to 
part with their liberties, even though the 
invader come up from a new quarter, with 
new features and form. These liberties 
have been too dearly bought. They have 
been purchased by the blood and lives of 
brave men, who are gone and by the help 
of God we intend to defend them. The 
welfare of the present and future genera- 
tions depends on what stand we take 
in transitional times like these. The 



ruinous effects of the robbery of the 
poor by the rich are around us. We 
do not have far to go to meet them. 1 
meet them on every street. I see them in 
all quarters of this city and country. You 
say, " I don't see anything of them." Per- 
haps you are like the man who went 
a-hunting, and when he came home he was 
asked if he saw any lions. He said no. 
He was then asked where he had gone. 
He said he had gone up to the English 
quarter in Calcutta, to see a rich man's 
daughter. " Ah," said the other, " you 
took care to go where there was deer, and 
not where there were lions. I can tell you 
this : that the dogs, and horses, and mules 
of Boston are taken better care of than are 
many of the human beings of Boston. If 
a woman own a dog, she takes a great 
deal more pride in, and care of that than 
is taken of many a man and woman, who 
has an immortal soul. If a man own a 
horse he takes pride in getting him rich 
trappings, good grooming, and a soft, dry 
bed, and nourishing food. But who cares 
for these poor brothers, and sisters of 
humanity, who, through sin, have wan- 
dered, and by misfortune been broken 
down ? Who takes pride in getting them 
decent clothing, comfortable housing, and 
nourishing food ? There they wander 
nightly through these streets, or lie hun- 
gry, and huddled together in some five or 
ten-cent den, with no hope coming on the 
morrow. God's kindly sun shines on many 
a man without bringing any light, or cheer 
within. God's balmy air fans the cheek 
of many a man and woman m Boston, 
without giving them any comfort. Hun- 
ger, disgrace, inhumanity, deep and dire, 
are gnawing at their heart, and so they 
pass on, haggard, heart-burdened, to the 
gloom of the grave. " The destruction of 
the poor is their poverty." 

We come a grade higher, into the ranks 
of the laboring man — the man whose 
class have built our 7'ailroads, and banks, 
and manufactories ; the man whose class 
have dug our cellars, built our cities, culti- 
vated our fields, and made them fruitful ; 
the man who supplies the bone, and mus- 



308 



Miseries of Wealth Against Commonwealth. 



cle, and sinew, and sweat, and toil. We 
enter his home. It is but a room or two, 
or a cellar, or garret. He has but little 
furniture, no carpet, no curtains, — few 
comforts. His little children have been 
indoors all winter because he could not 
furnish them with shoes. His wife cannot 
go to church because he cannot buy her a 
dress. He himself goes nowhere, except 
to the saloon, to takes a glass to drown 
his cares. His face is sunken. His eye is 
dull. His brow is wrinkled. His features 
seamed. His form stiff, and worn. He 
has no books ; he has few friends, and no 
money, and yet he is a hard-working, 
honest man. But there he is, with decay- 
ing mind, failing spirits, ground down by 
much poorly requited toil. " The destruc- 
tion of the poor is their poverty." 

We go a grade higher. We come to 
the tradesmen of various crafts. We talk 
with them about their affairs. We find 
they have had little work, and poor pay 
for the little they have done. They have 
been struggling through, trying to keep 
from begging. Ten cents' worth a day is 
all that some of them during the winter 
have had to eat. The last utensil that 
could be spared from the household has 
been sold or pawned.. The clothing is 
wearing out ; the wife is anxious, and can- 
not make matters better. The children 
are unable to go decently, and so, in her 
self-respect, she keeps them with her in 
the little home. Thev ouo-ht to be at 
school ; but she cannot clothe them. They 
all ought to go to church, but none of 
them are able. The landlord must have 
his rent. The grocer must be paid, and 
when the bare necessities are met there is 
nothing left. Anxiety and care reign ; 
comfort comes only once in a while, and 
luxury never. The life of this class is sad 
and weary. " The destruction of the poor 
is their poverty." 

We come to that class to which per- 
haps a majority of you belong — clerks, 
and sales-ladies, and sales-gentlemen. You 
started out with a regal ambition. You 
were resolute in preparing yourselves at 



the district and public school. You looked 
to the high school with glee. You grad- 
uated with honors. Some of you have 
gone through college. Your ambition and 
purpose were good. You were really 
aspiring nobly. And, after all your aspir- 
ations and preparations, after all your 
experience and ability, you are just able to 
meet your obligations. You have to be 
very careful, and with all your care some- 
times you are not quite successful. You 
are kept on the anxious seat, and have to 
watch every cent. Judging by the contri- 
bution boxes, the cents are more plentiful 
than dollars. You have to work long and 
hard, and yet you just come out clear. 
And in these times you are fortunate if 
you are able to do that. But, perhaps with 
all your efforts, you have not been suc- 
cessful in holding } r our position. And so 
you have had to give up, and go to can- 
vassing — book canvassing, and paper can- 
vassing perhaps, and oh, the pangs you 
suffer, the agonies you go through, at the 
rebuffs you receive as you go from door 
to door. Life is a constant struggle to 
get a mere physical subsistence. There is 
something wrong else this would not be 
so. So far as physical subsistence is con- 
cerned, the Samoan lying beneath the 
shade of his tree, with the fruit falling into 
his mouth, is better off than you. Where 
such a strain is necessary to meet mere 
bodily wants, there is something radically 
wrong. 

You are not really physical beings. You 
have bodies ; but you are souls. Bodies 
are but the vehicles, and if all your time 
is taken up in tinkering the vehicle, you 
will never amount to much. You ought 
to have leisure for the cultivation of your 
mind. You ought to have time and 
money for the cultivation of yourself, so 
that, as an accomplished and successful 
spirit, you may prepare for Heaven. But 
if monopolies, frauds, and systematic job- 
bery are going to be practiced upon 
you by the upper classes, and the pluto- 
cratic rich, then there are going to be ter- 
rible results. 



Miseries of Wealth Against Commonwealth. 



309 



1. The poorest poor will utterly die of 
starvation. 

2. The struggling poor shall be 
reduced to greater distresses. 

3. The upper poor will be where the 
lower poor now are. 

4. The lower middle classes will be 
reduced to greater straits. 

5. The middle middle classes will be 
where the lower middle classes are now. 

6. The upper middle classes will be 
reduced to the circumstances of the middle 
middle classes, and general degradation 
will rest upon all who are not above that 
line, which separates the rich from the 
poor. 

How may this be prevented? What is our 
hope ? How is the rich man to be brought 
out of his selfish castle, and the poor man 
up out of his miserable condition ? 
Hitherto the world has been under the 
hard, harsh, exacting terms of law. This 
was necessary, and in many cases will be 
necessary for years to come. There are 
many who will not do right unless 
whipped to it by the scourges of law. 
Hence law is still a necessity. But this is 
a transitional age. In fact, all ages have 
been transitional, less or more. But this 
century is much more so than any of its 
precursors. Education is becoming gen- 
eral, evangelization growing popular, 
human brotherhood advancing daily, 
Divine Fatherhood increasing hourly. 
Every great discovery in practical science 
facilitates this. Every solid stride forward 
in mechanical science prepares the way 
for this final and best form of government. 
The press, unconsciously to itself, prepares 
the way. The public school, without 
intending it, prepares the way. The rail- 
roads, steamships, telephones, and all 
other rapid means of inter-communication 
among the people prepares the way. God, 
our Father, by these, and a multitude of 
minor physical, and scientific means, comes 
gradually down upon the world, comes closer 
and closer to His human children. As they 
emerge from gloom, incivility, and barbar- 
ity toward Him, He emerges from the 



majesty and mystery of imperial law 
toward them. He does not wish to rule 
His children by law. Law was a make- 
shift with Him. He had to use it to bring 
His sinful, erring children to know them- 
selves, and to know Him. Law has, like a 
school teacher, been doing this work for 
thousands of years. The signs of the times 
now show that, whilst law may yet for 
years be necessary, and will never be 
absolutely dethroned, because it is a tran- 
scription of the Almighty Mind, yet 
the time has about come when, instead 
of law, we will have love. We shall have 
that love when we seek it first ; when we 
give it priority ; when we yield it suprem- 
acy above everything else. This is the 
only way out for either the rich man or 
the poor man. They both must take the 
same road. When we seek the Kingdom 
of God and His righteousness before every- 
thing else, everything else shall be added 
unto us. People are beginning to see 
this. This is an applicative age. As sure 
as we live a new era is dawning. The rich 
are receiving clearer views of their duty. 
The poor are becoming more conversant 
with their rights. Men are cultivating 
mutual self-respect. The fraternalism of 
the Gospel is spreading among the masses. 
The paternalism of the Bible is pervading 
the social structure. Men are coming more 
and more to feel, and see that God is 
wisely, strongly, lovingly, coming down 
upon the world. A hitherto unknown 
respect for human nature, and for Divine 
nature is gradually growing. " The Bridge 
of Sighs " is being replaced by the Bridge 
of Joy. " The dolorous Song of the Shirt " 
is flying away before the delightful songs 
of the Saviour. The money that has been 
spent in slaughtering men is going to be 
spent in saving them. The arbitration 
treaty is in the air, and will soon be on 
the statute book. The costliness of war 
will be unknown. The arsenals will be 
turned into asylums ; the warships into 
exploration ships ; the Senate, and Con- 
gress into considerate, and charitable coun- 
cil chambers ; the rum saloons into healthy 



Miseries of Wealth Against Commonwealth. 



and happy banquet halls ; the rich man's 
hard heart into softness and sympathy ; the 
poor man's discouraged hand into a hand 
of industry and hope. The spirit of 
Heaven is working its way down into the 
spirit of earth. The greatest legislator is 
the Jew of Galilee. He has come once ; 
but He is coming again. Our business is 
to be ready, and get others ready. The 
only way to be ready is to be like Him. 
The only way to have others ready is to 
have others like Him. The man of 
Galilee the rich man needs, and the poor 
man wants. Xothing takes the grind- 
ing greed out of a money-loving man 
like the love of Jesus. Nothing takes the 
sullen despair but of a poor man like the 
joy of Jesus. There on the common plane 
of humanity in Him rich and poor meet 
together. Love becomes the ligature that 
binds them ; faith the shield that defends 
them ; hope the coronet that crowns them ; 
righteousness the breastplate that protects 
them ; truth the girdle that zones them ; 
the gospel the sandals that shoe them ; 
the Bible the Book that scatters all their 
foes ; good nature the magnet that draws 
all their friends ; glory the victor that 
slays all their enemies ; Heaven the home 
both shall inherit ; God the Father both 
shall worship ; goodness the goal at which 
both shall aim ; the world's salvation the 
object for which both shall live. Away, 
then, with disputes between rich and poor. 
Away with hate, and envy, jealousy, 
and fear. Let mutual trustfulness and 
good- will obtain. Let mutual love lead 
both on to duty. If you are rich, use 
your riches to lift your brother. If you 
are poor, use the good news of the Gospel 
to bless mankind. If you are neither, use 
your mediation to bring rich and poor 
together. Be somebody worth being. Do 
something worth doing. The world needs 
you. The Master calls you. Time is pass- 
ing. Opportunity is closing. The work 
is pressing, and every man, woman, and 
child is needed 

Cast around, then, and consider what 
you can do to evangelize the rich ; to 



emancipate the poor ; to build up the 
Church ; to benefit the world. As soon 
as you discover your duty, do not hesitate. 
Go at it ; keep at it. Focus all your pow- 
ers upon it. Be so reliable you can be 
trusted. Be prompt; be punctual; be 
energetic ; be true, and you shall be tri- 
umphant. Oligarchy will be abolished ; 
plutocracy put down ; the tyranny of 
wealth subdued ; the appreciation of man- 
hood established. And no longer shall the 
rich man's wealth be his strong city ; nor 
the poor man's poverty be his destruction. 
But the rich man's strong city shall be his 
God, and the poor man's poverty his 
inspiration. These are Easter times. The 
Church wants Easter heroes. The world 
needs Easter heroes. There have been, 
and there are many kinds of heroes, but 
none so sublimely exalted, and honored as 
the Hero of the Resurrection. This is the 
way out. Be an Easter hero. 

The Easter hero believes his Chief is 
risen. 

The Easter hero believes he, too, shall 
rise. 

The Easter hero loves his risen Master. 
The Easter hero loves his falle?i brother. 
The Easter hero stands for his ascended 
Lord. 

The Easter hero brings his ivounded 
comrades to their Redeemer's feet. 

The Easter hero has the resurrection 
powers within his soul. 

The Easter hero spends himself in the 
service of his King. 

The Easter hero is ready to offer his 
fortune, /lis Jioior, his life, on the altar of 
his faith. 

The heroes of Greece may be many, 

The heroes of Rome may be more ; 
But heroes of Jesus stand ready 

To sink, or to swim, or to soar. 
Cheerily they join in life's battle; 

Heartily they press to life's goal ; 
And never on earth are so happy 

As when they are saving a soul. 
Then, come Easter joys with each morning. 

Then, come Easter gladness each noon, 
And brighten the midnight of duty, 

Till glory shall shine through the tomb. 

Amen. 



Analogies Between Wheel and Spiritual Life 



" The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels." — Ezekikl i : 21. 



THE first chapter of Ezekiel is a piece 
of gorgeous imagery. The prophet, 
wrapt in the visions of God, stands 
with the captives, by the River Chebar. He 
sees a fire-enfolding whirlwind coming 
from the North. From the fire there 
springs a spray of brightness, hued with 
amber. Four strange-looking, living crea- 
tures appear coming out of the hurricane 
of flame. They were such creatures as 
never had been seen by human eye. Each 
one had four faces, and four wings. Their 
feet sparkled like burnished brass. The 
hands of a man were under their wings. 
They flew straight forward. They had 
the face of a man, denoting intelligence ; 
the face of a lion, indicating strength ; 
the face of an ox, signifying endurance, 
and the face of an eagle, symbolizing 
swiftness. These living creatures were 
bright, like burning coals, and flaming 
lamps, from which flew lightning. In the 
midst of the dazzling splendor appeared 
beryl-colored wheels, with a wheel in the 
middle of a wheel. The rings of these 
wheels were " so high that they were 
dreadful," and so sagacious that they were 
"full of eyes round about." When the liv- 
ing creatures went the wheels went," and 
when the living creatures were lifted from 
the earth the wheels were lifted also. 
Whithersoever the spirit went the wheels 
went, " for the spirit of the living creature 
was in the wheels." 

This magnificent vision may have been 
to prepare the prophet for the mighty 
messages to follow. It may also contain a 
foreshadowing of the times of flaming 



progress upon which we have entered. 
Whatever may have been its original 
intention, or ulterior significance, one 
thing is sure : we are now entering upon 
such times as the world never knew before. 
I think this may be a prophecy of them. 
Whether or no, it is for us to catch the 
drift, and mission of our times, and move 
according to the mind of the spirit that is 
now moving among the wheels of progress. 
That spirit is the Spirit of God. The liv- 
ing creature wheels, and all obeyed that 
Holy Spirit in the vision. The living 
creature wheels, and all should obey that 
Holy Spirit in our endeavors. 

There is considerable anxiety among 
thinking people as to what will be the out- 
come of wheel life. There has been wheel 
life in the manufacture of food, and of 
clothing, and in the rapid transportation of 
vast numbers. And now the bicycle has 
come. Some supposed it would pass like 
other fads. I am not among those who think 
so. This kind of transit for the poor has 
come to stay, and to develop, for wheel 
life is a development in line with the fore- 
tokenings of nature, the hintings of pro- 
phecy, and the progress of humanity. 

I do not say this because I happen to be 
a wmeelman ; but because I notice things 
that are going on in this universe. Do not 
you yourselves observe that the glorious 
retinue of the starry sky sweeps forward 
on axles of blazing light round rings that 
are high and dreadful? Have you not 
noticed that the whole universe is strung 
on the wheeling plan — wheeling earth ! 
wheeling planets ! wheeling sun ! wheeling 



316 



Analogies Between Wheel and Spiritual Life. 



system upon system, round their awful 
orbital centres, all moving forward to 
some vast unthinkable destiny ? 

And have you not noticed that man is 
to be identified with that destiny? That 
that destiny, indeed, may be largely, if not 
chiefly, for man? And that man's duty 
in preparing for that destiny, is to take the 
lessons to himself that are imaged in the 
motions of the material worlds. The uni- 
verse runs on awful cycles toward some 
vast, endless cycle. Man has just begun 
to mount. How swiftly he will fly before 
he dismounts no seer can see. The eagle 
can as yet excel him in swiftness ; the ox 
in patience ; the lion in strength. But 
may not the bicycle be but the beginning 
of a series of progressions that shall lift 
him afar above all mere animal strength, 
swiftness, and persistence ? We have rapid 
transit for the collected masses. Now we 
are emerging to rapid transit for the soli- 
tary man and woman. The initial machine 
is here. It is in its infancy. But enough 
of it is here to enable us to see somewhat 
of its design, and destiny. The lata of 
circularity prevails everyiohere. 

The eye is a circle. The brain is a 
circle. The blood moves in circles. The 
lungs are composed of circles. The life 
cells are circles. The atoms that frame 
the body are circles. The atoms that con- 
stitute the worlds are circles. The globes 
are circles. The orbits through which they 
fly are circles. Human history is a com- 
posite of circles. Human life itself is a 
circle. The all-encompassing God clasps 
the universe with an all-embracing, and per- 
vasive circle, that all, including Being, may 
move straight on to some now unknow- 
able destiny. But His apparent methods 
for His creations are circular. And so, 



when man wants to move rapidly, he 
falls in with the universal plan, and adopts 
the cycle. That cycle is allied to universal 
circularity. It is in unison with nature. It 
is an expedient reflex of the plan of the 
dominating oversoul. It has come to meet 
a long-felt need. It is for us to use it for 
our good. It is our business to hear its 
voice, and learn such lessons as shall help 
us — help us physically, intellectually, spirit- 
ually. To these lessons we invite atten- 
tion. Much depends on how we learn 
them, and how we work them. Time is 
too short to dwell on unworkable theories. 
We ask your attention to practical lessons. 
These are they that shape destiny. By 
deeds we shall be judged, and by deeds 
devoted in the realm of destiny. 

I. The thing the initial wheelman 
does first is to notice. You look out on 
others spinning along on wheels, and you 
begin to think. You see that is better 
than walking. You keep observing, and 
thinking, and your thought grows into 
desire. You want a wheel. You have 
used your thought, and your thought has 
begotten a wish. The same process you 
should pursue in regard to what is best in 
life. Notice how others get along best in 
life. Study various methods — the fashion- 
able method, the drinking method, the 
swearing method, the stealing method 
the debauching method, the murder- 
ous method, the vagrant, or the indolent 
method. You soon see these clothe men 
with ruin, and destruction, and wisely con- 
clude none of these shall be your method. 
You turn, and notice another class. You 
watch the industrious, the sober, the hon- 
est, the good, the Christian, and the true. 
You see the results are better. You see 
these go up, and those go down. You 



Analogies Between Wheel < 

wisely conclude that the good life is best 
for you. You have trials and temptations 
in the wrong direction ; but you are hesi- 
tant, and cautious. You long to do right, 
though evil be present with you. Cultivate 
that longing. 

II. Take a lesson from the initial 
wheelman. He gets a wheel. It costs 
something ; but he wants it enough to pay 
the cost, and he buys it. And so you who 
see that there is a better life for you must 
proceed on the same principle. You will 
have to acquire something on which 
to proceed. That something is truth — 
Human truth, Divine truth, all truth ! ! ! 
This is the vehicle on which you can ride 
circularly upward. There is no other. 
The clearer the truth, the cleaner you 
ride. The stronger the truth, the quicker 
you rise. The clearest, and the strongest 
truth comes from Him who is purest, and 
mightiest. That truth may come through 
man, but it must come from God. He is 
the truth — fountain. You can never receive 
the best truth till you receive Him. God 
has placed that truth in His Son. He was, 
and is, its concentrated essence. He 
brought it so near that it comes in contact 
with us. God's truth was so vast we could 
not use it till he deposited it in His Incar- 
nate Son. God was in the world ; but the 
world knew him not. And so the Word 
(that is the Truth) was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us, and we beheld His 
glory, the glory as of the only begotten 
of the Father, full of grace and truth. 
Some did not receive Him, " but as many 
as received Him to them gave He power 
to become the Sons of God." Your inter- 
ests depend on your reception of Him. 

III. When you secure a bicycle the 
next thing you do is to learn to mount. 



nd Spiritual Life. 317 

This is sometimes difficult, especially with 
clumsy, heavy, or stupid people. It requires 
on the part of these considerable resolution, 
and practice to learn to mount. But how- 
ever difficult, or dangerous it may be, it 
must be done, or you cannot ride. The 
same is true in regard to the truth of God. 
People who are weighted with worldliness, 
and stupid with sin, find it difficult to rise 
to the Gospel. It is hard to break away 
from old habits, and boon companions, and 
vile thoughts, and bad feelings. But the 
break must be made if these don't break 
you. Then it is hard to receive the Gos- 
pel in its singular, and strange simplicity. 
It seems too good to be true. To believe 
that one can be made an eternal child of 
the everlasting God, and heir to all the 
riches in the universe, by a sincere act of 
faith in Jesus Christ, staggers many. But 
yet without that act of heart reliance you 
never can bound into the Gospel chariot. 
With heart faith, it is natural and easy. 
There are two handle-bars you can lay hold 
of when learning to mount a bicycle — one 
for the right hand, the other for the left. 
There are two truth sources you can lay 
hold of when mounting the Gospel wheel. 
The one is the Old Testament, the other 
is the New. You lean hard upon them, 
spring up, and take your place. I have 
had the privilege of aiding thousands to 
mount the Gospel wheel ; but I never have 
seen any get squarely seated who did not 
believe the Bible. There are many reli- 
gions ; but there is only one Christ, and 
you cannot get to Him so long as you 
doubt His Word. You may search, 
struggle, debate, reason, quibble, pray, and 
work ; but not till you believe God's Word 
with the reliance of a child on the word of 
its trusted father can you be saved. It is 



318 



Analogies Between Wheel and Spiritual Life. 



as true now as it ever was. " He that 
believeth shall be saved. He that believe th 
not shall be damned." It is by a present, 
personal, living act of faith, then, you take 
the Gospel saddle. Take it now. 

IV. The next thing a would-be wheel- 
man does after he learns to mount is to 
remain mounted. Many have much trouble 
here. But this is where balancing comes 
in. To remain mounted you must learn to 
balance. Every wheelman knows that the 
way to balance is to lift in the direction you 
are falling. If you are falling to the right, 
you lift with the right ; if to the left, you 
lift with the left, and then press equally 
with both. This is the central principle of 
balancing. In learning to proceed in the 
Gospel plan, a similar principle must be 
practiced. When you become a Christian 
you need to practice the same principle. If 
you find yourself falling to the left by 
committing sin : lift up the wheel of the 
law ; if you find yourself falling to the 
right by sore temptation to despondency : 
lift up the Gospel. Thus you will be saved 
from falling off into the " mire of sin " on 
the one side, and from flying off into the 
" slough of despond " on the other. There 
is no need of a Christian falling. If he is 
watchful, prayerful, and progressive, sus- 
tained by the Old Testament on the one 
side, and the New Testament on the 
other, he cannot fall. 

V. This brings out another principle of 
the wheel which illustrates the Christian life 
that shapes our destiny, and that is \hs prin- 
ciple of progress. You all know no wheel- 
man can keep on his wheel and stand still. 
The machine was made to go, and he must 
keep going. He may move quickly or 
slowly, as he chooses ; but he must keep 
moving, or get off. Hence the need of 



his pedals as well as his handle-bars. He 
has to use his feet as well as his hands. 
He steers with his hands. He propels 
with his feet. The Heavenly wheelman 
does the same. You have seen this illus- 
trated in your own experience. You see 
you have to keep going. Some of you go 
swiftly ; some of you slowly ; some of you 
wabblingly. But all of you who are 
mounted have kept going. Those of you 
who have dismounted quit pedaling. Those 
of you who are flying up the shining way 
are pedaling still. In plain terms, what 
does this mean ? It means that you are 
working for God, by working for man. It 
means that you are placing your feet in 
your Master's foot-prints, and, like Him, 
going " about doing good." It means that 
it is your " meat and drink to do the will " 
of your Heavenly Father — not simply to 
hear it ; not merely to approve of it ; but 
to do it. That will is made plain to you 
as you read, and hear the Word of God. 
You learn that will, not from mere curios- 
ity, but from filial affection, from passion- 
ate desire, and when you learn it, it is your 
desire to do it. It makes no matter in what 
form that will comes to you. You know 
it is for your good. If you are called to suf- 
fer, you say, " the will of the Lord by me be 
done." If you are called to speak for Him 
in private, or public, you say, " the will of 
the Lord by me be done." If you are to give 
toil, and care, and money to sustain His 
cause, your loyal cry is, " the will of the 
Lord by me be done." In fact, you are 
not waiting till someone presses upon 
you the importance of it ; you are rather 
looking up, and saying, " Lord, what wilt 
Thou have me to do?" And when He shows 
what He would have you do, you do it 
with all your might. God has married 



Analogies Between Wheel and Spiritual Life. 



319 



labor and progress, work and reward. 
They are indivisible, and undivorceable. 
The one follows the other as light the rising 
of the sun. No man ever works with a single 
eye for God without progressing towards 
God. He advances over the dead body 
of his sins. He advances up out of his 
follies, and failures. He advances from 
his ignorance, and weakness, and pro- 
gresses in ever-increasing strength, sweep- 
ing clean, up out of the swamps of the 
vices, he passes gladly on into the glorious 
garden of the graces. The spirit within 
him cries, "Go! Go ! ! Go[ ! !" while 
all the beauties around him cry, " Grow ! 
Grow ! ! Grow ! ! ! " And so he keeps 
going and growing in the grace and know- 
ledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
He may have sufferings, but his sufferings 
are freighted with far- excelling compensa- 
tions. And when you pity him he will, 
after this manner, reply, — 

" You say I've suffered. It is true, my friend, 
And still shall suffer, — that I know right well. 
My way is hard and toilsome. Who can tell 
By what steep paths I reach my journey's 
end? 

But this you have forgot, — I do not spend 
My effort grudging. If through some old 
spell 

Of god or genii, I could yet compel 

My lot to my desires, I still would bend 

My steps as God has, — make no other choice 

Than just this life that seems so bare to you, 

Refuse no height which gives a larger view 

Of seeming inequalities. My voice 

I lift in praise, not question. 0, pursue 

Me not with pity, but, with me, rejoice." 

VI. Having noticed that the wheel- 
man observes, buys a wheel, learns to 
mount, to balance, and to go, now con- 
sider what he goes on. He goes on the 
best road he can find. Bad roads are bad 
for wheelmen. Good roads are their 



glory. And so they have books, and 
maps that show where the good roads are. 
Every wise wheelman taking a long trip 
consults these guides. It pays him to do 
so. It saves him many troubles to know 
where the best roads are. The same is 
true of the Gospel worker. He needs to 
know the best wajr. There have been 
many ways spoken of. There are many 
false ways — ways that lead into deserts 
of doubt ; paths that lead into quicksands 
of despair ; roads that take you toward the 
mirages of mockery. Devils devise ways 
to deceive men. Women plan ways to 
mislead men, and men ways to betray 
women. This world is full of crooked 
ways, deceitful ways, disappointing ways, 
ways of weariness and death ! ! ! As you 
look over these ways, you see them red 
with the blood of the slain ; white with the 
bones of the dead ; hot with the sighs of 
the sick ; drenched with the tears of the 
unfortunate ; horrid with the beasts of 
slaughter. And oh, how it cheers 
me to be able to point you to-night to 
a way in which a life was never lost ; a 
way that never deluded a traveler ; a way 
that is always better farther on ; a way 
that always leads to happiness, and never 
to final sorrow ; a way that is solid and 
secure as the everlasting pavement; 
a way that charms with Divine imagery, 
that inspires with Heavenly promises, that 
instructs with lasting truths ; a way that 
delights you with blessed spirits; that 
becalms you with paternal kindness ; that 
tones you with celestial zephyrs ; that fills 
you with inexhaustible pleasures ; that 
refreshes you with the nectar of the skies, 
and strengthens you with the food of 
Deity. 

Ah ! what are you doing down there 



320 



Analogies Between Wheel and Spiritual Life. 



weak, w r eary, dust-stained, hungry trav- 
eler ? Come up ! Come up hither to the 
highway of holiness. This highway has 
been built by the Architect of Eternity — 
skilfully built, solidly built, smoothly 
built, expensively built, built by the very 
Son of God Himself with more care, skill 
and expense than that with which he built 
the world ; built with emerald, and golden 
glories on either hand ; built with trees on 
either side bearing twelve manner of fruits, 
and with " leaves for the healing of the 
nations ;" built so that no ravening beast 
can go up thereon ; built so that only the 
"redeemed can w r alk there" "as they return 
to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy 
upon their heads." Oh Blessed Highway, 
how happy we are that Thou hast been 
established between here and home. The 
grand ways of men are as nothing com- 
pared with Thee. The liquid paths of the 
mighty deep are as delusions and mock- 
eries in comparison wdth Thee. Thou art 
superb, sublime, eternal. Thou givest 
vigor to the feet of every traveler. Thou 
givest buoyancy and life as soon as the 
feet of purity pace Thy loving, living 
paths. Our sins fly back, our friends flock 
in quick as our feet rest upon Thee. This ! 
this is the way, the only way for you — the 
track of Jesus, the clear, clean way of 
Christ. This is 

" The way the holy prophets went, 
The road that leads from banishment, 
The King's highway of holiness, — 
I'll go, for all his paths are peace. 

This is the way I long have sought, 
And mourned because I found it not ; 
My grief a burden long has been 
Because I was not saved from sin. 

The more I strove against its power 
I felt its weight and guilt the more ; 



Till late I heard my Saviour say, 
" Come hither, soul, I am the way." 

Lo! glad I come, and Thou, blest Lamb, 
Shalt take me to Thee as I am ; 
Nothing but sin have I to give, 
Nothing but love shall I receive. 

Then will I tell to sinners round 
What a dear Saviour I have found ; 
I'll point to Thy redeeming blood, 
And say, " Behold the way to God." 

VII. Another blessing, beside a a good 
road for wheelmen^ is good weather. 
Stormy, slushy weather destroys, for the 
most part, the use of the wheel. Hence 
you clean up, and store your wheels in 
winter, and bring them out in spring. The 
season when the sun is shining, and the 
birds singing, and the landscapes bloom- 
ing, and all nature is fresh and radiant 
with loveliness : the wheelman wants to 
go. And this is equally true of the 
Heavenly traveler. Good weather is favor- 
able to progress with him, also. He lives 
in a spiritual sphere, and much depends on 
the kind of weather he has in his soul. 
Some people are particularly fond of a 
cold, chilling, spiritual atmosphere. Many 
of these same people ought to know bet- 
ter. What is more absurd than a church 
closed up all week, and opened only on 
Sundays for people to sit in its musty 
atmosphere? It is not much wonde 1 " 
preachers and singers have sore throats' 
and people contract sciatica, and rheu- 
matics. It is no marvel that many people 
dread the Church as they do a coffin. I 
would just as soon lie down in the old 
musty, dusty sarcophagus in the pyramid 
of Cheops as stay two hours in some 
churches. Oh, when will church people 
be as wise in church matters as they are in 
business affairs? When will the time 



Analogies Behueen Wheel and Spiritual Life. 



321 



come when our churches during the week 
will be thrown open to the balmy airs of 
Heaven, and instead of being consumptive 
vaults, be the most healthful, and inviting 
spots beneath the skies. Good, fresh, 
balmy air in the churches is as needful for 
the Heavenly traveler as for the earthly. 
Then, there must be good spiritual 
weather. Thank God, we have it here. 
But how many churches there are where 
there is a chronic storm — peevish, cross, 
weazen gossips, seized with dry rot — think 
things are not going right unless they are 
raising a rumpus. They like to hear the 
sounds of complaint, and so they go 
buzzing around getting up a storm. And 
not unfrequently they succeed in doing it. 
When they raise the devil he likes to lick 
his gory jaws, and smirkly smile, till all are 
whelm'd in a roar of wrath. And if Satan 
cannot get up a wrath-storm then he tries 
a snow-storm, and everybody gets so chilly 
that everything is frozen — frozen singing, 
frozen praying, frozen reading, frozen 
preaching, frozen prayer meetings, frozen 
class meeting, frozen official meetings, 
frozen social meetings, frozen family 
meetings, frozen tongues, ears, eyes, 
hands, feet, heads, and hearts, everything 
frozen up. Now, how can you have any 
spiritual progress with such a winter as 
that in a church, or in a man ? You can- 
not have it. But let good weather come 
to such a frozen church, and how differ- 
ent everything in a short time ! The peo- 
ple thaw out, They feel the sweet sense 
of life, of joy, and liberty. They bound 
with love, and bloom with generosity. 
Everybody is gay, and winsome with the 
flowers of grace, and the fruits of the 
spirit. " The sun of righteousness has 
risen upon then with healing in his wings." 



The landscapes of the truth rise up before 
them with thousands of enchanting 
charms. The glades of glory open up 
their vistas and invite them on. The 
angels come down on silent, unseen wings, 
and fill the air when they are singing. The 
preacher catches the flame, and burns like 
a seraph. The people feel the throbbing 
of his heart, and vie with each other in 
discharge of duty. The wave of warmth 
and joy is felt in all the meetings, 
and in all the workings of the Church. 
The machinery of the Church moves with 
such swift, serene velocity that everybody 
loves to look, and listen, and many love 
to set out for Zion. Great, glorious, and 
grand are the effects of good ways, and 
weather on pilgrims passing home, and the 
spirit of the living creature fills the 
wheels. 

VIII. Another blessing good wheelmen 
appreciate is good company. No respect- 
able wheelman will tolerate drunken, 
swearing, unchaste company. He is not 
out to dissipate, but renovate. He wants 
to refresh his lungs with ozone ; to enrich 
his blood with pure air ; to toughen his 
muscle with innocent exercise ; to refresh 
his brain with the vitalities of nature, and 
to cheer his heart with sights of sun, sea, 
sky, forest, lake, and river. It may be 
that he moves still higher, and looks with 
Christian eyes through Nature's works to 
Nature's Worker, through " things that do 
appear " to that Supreme Power that 
made them. In doing so he loves good 
company. And so is it with the Heavenly 
pilgrim. He just will not go with bad 
company. You cannot make him. He is 
determined not to. Here is an important 
lesson for you, my hearers. 

You are flying rapidly through time. 



I 



322 



Analogies Between Wheel and Spiritual Life. 



You soon will have reached your destiny. 
That destiny will be decided by what you 
are. What you are is decided largely by 
the company you keep. You are plastic 
and impressionable. Everything, and 
every person that touches you leaves an 
impression upon you. A succession of 
bad imprints make a bad character. 

Keep out of bad company. You say, 
" How can I do so ? My company is bad ; 
my habits are bad, and I cannot find my 
way out." The way out is plain. It is 
this : Look around, and find the very best 
companions you can, and monopolize your 
mind, and heart, and time with them. 
Become prepossessed by them, so that you 
will have no capacity, nor time for any 
others. Good books are good company. 
Good men or women are good company. 
Good works, and thoughts, and feelings 
are good company. And God Himself is 
the best company. Be much in com- 
munion with Him. Talk to Him as a child 
to its father. Bring all your woes and 
wants before Him. Ask Him for His 
infallible counsel. Keep so close to Him 
you can always speak with him. Keep so 
near Him you can always hear His voice. 
What He says, do. Where Pie directs, 
go. When He inspires, speak. And so 
you will find yourself moving upward. 
You will not be like Sisyphus, rolling a 
stone up the mountain, to see it roll down 
into the valley ; nor like the Martinet 
general who marched his men up the hill 



to march them down again. No, your 
course will be onward. You may make 
many circuits, but each will take you higher. 
You may move spirally, but each spiral of 
duty will take you farther up, so that you 
can look farther out. Of this silent, steady 
progress Gen. Grant, whom the nation has 
just memorialized, was a splendid speci- 
men. Modest, brave, persistent, loyal, 
sagacious, self-reliant, devoted to duty, 
faithful to friends, and generous to foes, he 
has made the hearts of his countrymen his 
sepulchre. But it was in the discharge of 
duty all the way from Belmont to Appom- 
atox he won the place we are glad to give 
him. He cared not to be bedecked with 
golden lace, or diamonded w T ith garish 
jewels. He wanted in times of great 
moment to be alone with his own 
thoughts, and that God in whom he 
trusted. This was his company during 
the war by which he cemented the 
Union. Let this same God be thy com- 
pany. He will make most of you. He 
will do most for you. He will set all 
the forces of your body in the best direc- 
tion. He will put all the machinery of 
your mind in the most exalted motion. 
He will give all the affection of your 
heart the widest scope, and grandest glow 
— the sweet, strong glow of love. He will 
set all your nature to the music of the 
skies. " For the spirit of the living crea- 
ture will then be in the wheels." 



Understanding the Scriptures* 

Then opened He their understanding- (noun, mind) that they might understand (sunienai, that 
is, pat together for the purpose of perceiving and comprehending) the Scriptures, — Luke xxiv: 45. 



THIS was one of the last acts in the 
drama of our Saviour's Life. It 
was one of the most important. 
There are no writings so much studied as 
the Holy Scriptures. There are no writ- 
ings we need so well to understand ; and 
yet by many they are little understood. 
The sublimity of the themes, on the one 
hand, and our spiritual stupidity, on the 
other, prevent a proper understanding of 
the Words of God. They may be com- 
prehended in their geographical, and his- 
torical setting. They may be perceived in 
their rhetorical, and poetical beauty. They 
may be analyzed in their authentic, gen- 
uine, and superficial relations, and yet be 
far from understood. No man has ever, 
no man can ever, understand the Scrip- 
tures merely with the mind. We cannot 
comprehend them without the mind ; but 
we cannot understand them with the mind 
alone. They cannot be understood as a 
series of problems in mathematics, or 
physics, are understood. The process, as 
well as the power, is different. There has 
to be something added to the natural 
workings of the intellect. That something 
holds the key to the Divine situation. That 
something is the Divine light of the Divine 
Master. " Then opened He their under- 
standing that they might understand the 
Scriptures." If the theologians of His 
time could have done this, Jesus need not 
have done it. If the learned Scribes, and 
erudite Lawyers, and accomplished Rabbis 
could have done it, His doing it would 
have been superfluous. But learned as 



they were in the literalism of the Scrip- 
tures, they were totally ignorant of their 
inner meaning. Familiar as they were 
with the outside sense, they knew little 
of the inside substance. The same is as 
true now as it was then. The students 
who study the Holy Scriptures without 
the opening touch of Christ, never get 
inside of them. They see the husk, but not 
the kernel. You stand on the exterior of 
a palace. You survey the general outlines. 
You can tell how much ground it covers, how 
high it rises, how old it is, to what order 
of architecture it belongs. You can speak 
of the groined pediments, the grooved col- 
umns, the chiselled architraves. You can 
sing of the fountains that play around it ; 
of the lovely lawn that lies before it ; of 
the emerald trees that embower it. You 
may even go farther, and descant upon its 
mullioned windows, its delicate traceries, 
caven cornices, and statues. You may 
know who scooped out the cellars, who 
were the designers, masons, carpenters, 
sculptors, and painters. But if the absent 
owner holds the only key, you can tell noth- 
ing of the interior. You cannot roam through 
its galleries. You cannot be sheltered by 
its roof, nor sit down at its table. You 
cannot be admitted to its family, nor share 
the joys of its children. 

So is it with the palace of the Word of 
God. It can be viewed outwardly like 
other books. But to be enjoyed 
inwardly, you must bring the Master, who 
opens the understanding with you to the 
study. When your spiritual understanding 



328 



UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES. 



is open, the Scriptures are opened. 
While your spiritual understanding is 
closed, the Scriptures are closed. It is, 
therefore, of vital importance to come to 
their study with the only One who can 
open your spiritual understanding. Let 
us, then, as we approach the Scriptures 
to-day, bring Jesus with us. He is always 
willing to come. He is always willing to 
hear even the whispered prayer of a search- 
ing soul. He will open to you the palace 
of the truth, by opening your mind to the 
Holy Scriptures. You may have gone out 
some cloudy morn, at dawn of blushing 
day. The lovely rose was all closed up. 
It had wrapped its leaves around its w 7 eary 
heart. It was waiting for the rising of the 
glory-bringing sun. It cared not for the 
cold glintings of the moon, nor the faint, 
distant glittering of the stars. It had 
wrapped itself around with its own silken 
leaves, and patiently was waiting for the 
father of its life to come. Slowly and 
steadily that parent glided up the sky. 
The closed rose began to feel the warmth 
of his love. Gently did its soft, perfumed 
leaves unfold, till it was looking up from 
its heart into the face of its Father — bask- 
ing in the beauty of his beams. 

Like to that rose are you. As deadly, 
and dreary night shades have gathered, 
you have wrapped the drapery of your 
life around you. You have stood in your 
solitude through the solemn, sombre hours 
of the gloom. But now to you the East 
is brightening. Its clouds are shotted with 
amber light. The arc is growing fair and 
ruddy, and the black, fleecy clouds look 
like mounts of burnished gold. Christ, the 
King of Day, has come. His touch will 
open your mind to understand the Scrip- 



tures. And these you need to understand 
more than anything else. 

1. You need to %mder stand them typi- 
cally. The leading metaphors, figures, 
metonymies, tropes, allegories, point with 
steady hand to the only One who can save 
you. So obtuse, so stupid was this world, 
that God had to teach it by sign and sym- 
bol, by index here, and exponent there ; 
by symptom that could instruct; emblem 
that could impress ; lineament that could 
lead ; indicator that could point. The Old 
Testament is a series of great prefigure- 
ments. The whole Hebrew system was 
bedecked with symbolizations. Each type 
was a foreteller of some fact ; each figure a 
revealer of some truth ; each shadow a 
foretokening of the Mighty Truth Bringer. 
Josua stood forth as the wonder of his 
day. Jordan divided at his command. 
Jericho fell before his horn. The sun 
stood still at his word. The old, wicked 
nations fled before his sword. He was a 
type of your all-conquering Lord. His 
victories w^ere but forerunners of the vic- 
tories of your King. Death himself passes 
away at Christ's approach. Entrenched 
evils fly when He comes. Nature obeys 
His high behest, and the old evil forces 
cannot live where he reigns. No man need 
longer be the victim of vice. Christ saves 
abundantly from sin, and sin is your dead- 
liest enemy. Satan can do nothing with 
you if you do not yield to sin. Sin is his 
weapon ; Holiness thine ! ! ! 

2. As Joshua was a type of one depart- 
ment of Christ's kingdom, so King David 
was type of another. David fixed the 
centre of government in the city of peace. 
Christ has fixed the centre of government 
in the city of the human soul. David 
gathered brave men around him to found 



UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIP TUBES, 



329 



the new kingdom in Palestine. Christ 
gathers his heroes about him to found the 
new Kingdom throughout the world. 
David and his men fought till the new 
kingdom of Israel was settled in peace. 
Christ and His legions will fight till the 
Heavenly Kingdom is established in love. 
Happy were the men of David as they 
marched, with the confidence of victory, 
under their young king. Happier far are 
the people of Jesus, who march with Him 
for the conquest of the earth. Brother, 
bright should be your hopes ; broad should 
be your loyalty, and deep should be your 
love. With such a King as Christ, whose 
heart can fail ? whose soul can be untrue ? 

3. But, according to the Scriptures, 
men alone could not typify the grandeur 
of the Son of God. Almost every other 
means was used to portend His coming, 
and His work. 

Away in the solemn solitude of that 
distant desert where little grew, except a 
palm tree here and there, beside some soli- 
tary spring, the Heavenly manna fell, and 
when the springs were scarce, and no 
water could be found, from the smitten 
rock came forth the crystal tide of liquid 
life. Thus meat and drink were super- 
naturally given. These were foretellings 
all through after ages of the Jesus who 
was coming ; of the Saviour whom we 
know so well has become the bread and 
water of spiritual life — bread that always 
satisfies our spiritual hunger, water that 
ever slakes our spiritual thirst. Xor was that 
all, for when the night was dark, and 
all was dreary around that desert-com- 
passed camp, lo, the burning pillar hovered 
over the host. God did not lead the peo- 
ple out of Egypt to forsake them on Ara- 
bian sands. He was with them still. This 



was the symbol of His presence. But it 
was more. It was a figure of the true. It 
was a token of how the Messiah would be 
with His people in the most gloomful 
night, and in the most trying circum- 
stances. Xow, we have all experienced 
this, my friends. From youthhood up that 
sacred presence has been with us. Our 
weakness and un worth have not driven 
Him away. He lovingly lingers with us 
still. He is our company when no one 
else is near. When our city is asleep this 
blessed Jesus lingers lovingly near, and 
makes the night of our slumber silent and 
secure. Xor did that companionship for- 
sake the hosts of God when physical day- 
light came. It remained then as the guid- 
ing cloud. Its fiery glow was not required 
then, but its guiding presence was. And 
so it led the march. And like unto that 
is the care our Saviour takes now of His 
own. He does not leave them to the glare 
and glitter of the garish day. He stays 
with them in the glow, as well as in the 
gloom. He knows that prosperity is dan- 
gerous to His own. He knows how Satan 
comes as the angel of light, and so, as the 
guiding presence, he remains with His 
people still . He abides with them at their 
work, and in trouble. He continues with 
them throughout the livelong; day. And 
as they look to Him as Jehovah, 
and think of Him as the pilgrims' 
guide, they, with Williams, exulting sing : 

" Guide me, thou great Jehovah, 
Pilgrim through this barren land ; 
I am weak : but Thou art mighty, 
Hold me with Thy powerful hand. 
Bread of Heaven, 
Feed me till I want no more. 

Open now the crystal fountain, 
Whence the healing waters flow, 



330 



UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES. 



Let the fiery, cloudy pillar 
Lead me all my journey through. 
Strong Deliverer, 

Be Thou still my strength and shield." 

4. The Divine touch of Jesus enables 
us to see not only the sacred symbolism of 
the Tabernacle pointing to Himself, but 
also to behold the imagery of the Temple 
at Jerusalem, prefiguring His atonement. 
There the priests presented for the people, 
the sacrifices of blood upon the altar. A 
sense of guilt had come upon the people. 
Sin had smitten them. Their heavy heart- 
burden no tears could take away. The 
conscience of the people told them they 
were guilty in the impartial eye of the 
Judge of all the earth. Oppression, fear, 
dismay, came upon them. And it was not 
till they went with their sacrifices up to 
the sacred platform of Jehovah's Temple, 
and there offered it as an expiatory sacri- 
fice for their sin, that they could hope to 
be in the favor of a justly offended God. 
These expiatory sacrifices were all figures 
pointing to the Great Sacrifice that was to 
be made once for all, ." to be testified in 
due time." There on Mount Moriah that 
atonement had to be made before any 
Jew could enjoy the raptures of Mount Zion. 
And this was, perhaps, the most imposing 
and important type of Christ in relation to 
ourselves. We all have sinned. ISTo man 
who knows his own defects ; no man who 
knows the perfections of God ; no man 
who knows the minute and perfect obed- 
ience required by the laws of this universe ; 
no man who knows how often, and how 
heinously those laws have been broken by 
thought, and feeling, and word, and 
action of himself, can for one moment 
doubt that he needs someone greater and 
better than he to go between him and 



God — someone whom justice will respect; 
someone whom Heaven will hear ; some- 
one to whom God will listen ; someone 
that all this universe of moral, rational, 
and responsible beings are bound to 
respect. Where is that someone ? Who, 
if not He who was the delegated darling 
of eternity ; He who was so lovely that He 
was the product of love ; He who was 
"the brightness of the Father's glory, and 
the express image of His person ;" He who 
stood so high in that Father's esteem that 
by Him He made the worlds ; he who 
stood so illustriously among the hosts of 
Heaven that they counted it their highest 
honor to do His bidding ; He who, with 
such a character, borne on the wings of 
fame all through this universe as the only 
begotten and best beloved of the Almighty. 
So ! this is He. He comes to lay His own life 
on the altar. Pie comes to fulfill and abolish 
all adumbrative animal sacrifices, by the sac- 
rifice of Himself. And when He stooped to 
the lowest, and the vilest; when He 
became an indicted felon at the bar of 
wrath ; when He marched in His robes of 
blood to the tragic crown of Calvary ; 
when He lay down to die upon that cross, 
not for sin He had ever done; when the 
cross spikes went crashing through Flis 
hands and feet as they were hammered 
home to the wood ; when he hung — a 
spectacle of disgrace, and shame, and woe 
before the eyes of earth and Heaven ; 
when He finally, in all the agonies of 
crucifixion, voluntarily poured out His 
heart's dearest blood till every vein was 
dry, and amid a mourning sun and a shud- 
dering earth, gave up the ghost for His 
enemies — then sacrifice had reached its 
sublimest exhibition ; then substitution had 
done its noblest work ; then atonement had 



UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES. 



331 



accomplished its mightiest mission, and 
the Heavenly singers took np the high, 
the infinite refrain, and sang through all 
the stately Heavens. " Thou art worthy 
to take the book (the book of mysteries) 
and to open the seals thereof, for Thou 
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God 
out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
people, and nation." "O, Blessed Jesus, 
there have been many atonements, many 
substitutions ; but never one like Thine. It 
comes up close to us, and meets our wants 
to-day. We have needed someone of 
mighty influence to plead our cause, and 
make a sacrifice that would expiate our 
sin. And O High, Illustrious King, Thou 
hast done the marvelous deed ! ! Thou 
hast died that I might live. Thou hast 
taken the place to which my sin devoted 
me. And shall I betray Thee? Shall I 
forget Thee ? Shall I be disloyal to Thee ? 
Never ! no, never while thought, or life, 
or being lasts, or immortality endures." 

5. The whole system of the Temple 
worship was a tissue of significant types, 
symbolizing some particular phase of our 
Saviour's many-sided life, and work. 
Many volumes would be required to 
describe them. I will but refer to one 
more, and that is the Urim and the Thum- 
mim worn on the Hebrew High Priests' 
breast. These consisted of twelve pre- 
cious stones — one for each tribe. It indi- 
cated perfection of light. When a^ war- 
rior wanted to know the will of God about 
going up to battle, the High Priest con- 
sulted this perfection of light, and if the 
shading on the stones was dark the war- 
rior went not up ; but if bright, then he 
would go into the battle. Christ was typi- 
fied by this Urim and Thummim. He is 



our most glorious Oracle. lie is our per- 
fection of light oracular. When we want 
to know whether we should engage in any 
enterprise we have but to consult him. 
If there come a shadow between us and 
our Lord that means don't do it. If there 
come a halo of brightness round Him and 
us making us one in the work, then do it ! 
do it! ! do it ! ! ! No matter who or what 
opposes, do it! You can never be mis- 
taken when you do what He bids you do. 
" Whatsoever He saith unto thee, do ! " 

II. But again you need to understand 
the Scriptures, not only typically but 
prophetically . The prophets portrayed 
Him as strongly as the types. The Jews 
had the prophets but they did not compre- 
hend them. The godless literalists of the 
present day have the same prophets, but 
they do not perceive the inner applicative 
sense of their prophecies. We are flung 
back by the history of the case on the 
words of Paul. " No man can say that 
Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost." It 
cannot be done by literalism. It cannot 
be accomplished by philosoj)hy. It can 
only be done in its own natural and proper 
way. The prophetic Scriptures in their 
essence are spiritual. No sensuous mind 
however great, can see that essence. It 
requires a spiritual eye to see a spiritual 
subject. It requires intellectual light to 
reveal an intellectual subject. It requires 
physical light to reveal a physical subject. 
And it requires spiritual light to reveal 
spiritual prophecy. There is nothing so 
mysterious about this. It is simply a 
natural law insisting on being naturally 
operated. 

It has to be naturally operated or it 
won't work. Hence I must insist that no 



332 



UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES. 



man is capable of understanding the 
prophecies of Holy Scriptures till he is 
illumed by the Holy light. So then if you 
are to understand the essential meaning 
and drift of prophecy, you must submit to 
Jesus and let Him open your understand- 
ing. When you do you will see that 
Moses and the prophets and the psalms 
are strung on prophecies concerning 
Christ, 

These prophecies are weighty and numer- 
ous. No being was ever so fully prophe- 
cised of. His descent was foretold. He 
was to be of the " seed of Abraham." 
His birth was foretold. 

He was to be "born of a virgin." The 
place of that birth was pre-announced. It 
was to be " in Bethlehem of Judea." The 
time of that birth was predicted. It was 
to be after " a time times and a half." 
The manner of his appearance in the 
Temple was foreshown. He was "sud- 
denly " to appear. The neighboring land 
in which He should sojourn was fore- 
spoken. Out of Egypt have I called my 
son." The kind of preacher he would be 
was foretold. 

He was to have " spirit of the Lord 
resting upon him, the spirit of wisdom and 
understanding, the spirit of counsel and 
of might, the spirit of -knowledge and of 
the fear of the Lord." 

The class of people to whom he would 
preach was foretold. He was to "preach 
to the meek, the brokenhearted, the cap- 
tives, and proclaim generally the accepta- 
ble year (the Jubilee year) of the Lord." 

The part of Palestine where he would 
spend most of his time was pre-announced. 

It was to be " the land of Zebulun and 
of Naphtali" and " Galilee of the nations." 
The manner of His triumphal entry into 
the Holy City was predicted. He was to 
enter " lowly and riding upon an ass and 
upon a colt the foal of an ass." 

The kind of miracles He would work 
was foreshown. 

He was to make the " deaf hear " and 
the "blind see" and the "tongue of the 
stammerers speak plainly," the " lame " 



was to " leap as a hart." The opposition 
of the authorities was forespoken. 

The " rulers were to take Counsel 
together against the Lord and against His 
annointed." His silence at the trial was 
prophesied. He was to be "brought 
as sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb 
before her shearers is dumb so he was not 
to open His mouth." 

The contempt and scourging with which 
He was treated at the trial were foretold. 

" His back was to be given to the 
smiters," and " His cheeks to them that 
pluck off the hair." He was to hide His 
" face from shame and spitting." His 
" visage was to be more marred than any 
man and His form than the sons of men." 
He was to be " despised and rejected of 
men a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief." 

The insults and scorn He received 
at the crucifixion were pre-announced. 
The " enemies were to laugh Him to 
scorn," to " shoot out the lip " of insult 
and shake the head of ribaldry and say 
" He trusted in the Lord that He would 
deliver Him, let Him deliver Him." 

So particular were the prophecies that it 
was even foreshown what should be done 
with His raiment at the cross. 

They were to "part His garments 
among them" and" upon His vesture" 
were to " cast lots." 

Even the drink they would offer to 
assuage the raging fever of His thirst 
during the pangs of crucifixion was told 
beforehand. 

"Gall" was to be "His meat" and 
" vinegar " to be His " drink." Such 
minute matters as that no bone of Him 
should be broken and the kind of grave 
He should be laid in were thrown up on 
the mirror of prophecy. " No bone was 
to be broken " and He was to " make His 
grave with the rich in His death." 

The matchless grandeur of His general 
appearance of sublime magnificence 
through all the humiliating and excrucia- 
ting scenes of the atoning tragedy were 
majestically and graphically proclaimed 



UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES. 



333 



before hand. He was to be like a Con- 
quering Hero Coming " up from Edom 
with dyed garments from Bozra glorious in 
His apparel, traveling in the greatness of 
His strength," speaking, "in righteousness 
and mighty to save." His garments in the 
battle were to be red like those of him 
who treadeth in the wine fat. But bent 
upon the splendid achievement He had 
come to accomplish for this He did not 
care though His raiment was red with 
His blood. Towering above all mere 
suffering and swept on *by the holy passion 
that possessed Him he was to tread the 
"wine press alone;" "Of the people 
none were to be with him." And rising 
to a height of grandeur such as Napoleon 
never dreamed of he was to go on after 
his agony, treading nations in his " anger," 
trampling them in his "fury" till their 
life blood should be sprinkled upon His 
"garments" and His "raiment" all be- 
stained. For the " day of vengeance" was 
to be in His "heart" and the "year" of 
His "redeemed was come." But time 
fails me to tell all the minute, mighty and 
majestic prophecies that were made con- 
cerning our glorious Lord. He was to 
rise from the " dead." He was to ascend 
"up on high." He was to be born of humanity 
yet only Son of Divinity, " clad in zeal 
like a cloak." Eaten up with earnestness 
yet so gentle that His " voice " was not to 
be "heard in the streets." So pitiful and 
tender that He would not " break a bruised 
reed nor quench the smoking flax." 

He was to be a " prophet of the highest" 
grandeur and a king of eternal splendor 
and a " priest forever after the " myster- 
ious" order of Melchisedeck." He was to 
be a " shepherd " and yet a " lamb," a 
" fountain " and 3'et a " sword." 

A " Corner stone " and yet a " stone of 
stumbling and rock of offence," a " light," 
a " star, a sun." And yet all have been 
fulfilled. 

And these foretellings of Him stretch 
away from the time the first was made in 
the garden of Eden 4,004 years before He 
was born — to the last wdiich was made by 



Malachi 397 years before His birth. I am 
not presenting these prophecies to con- 
vince you that the " Man of Galilee " is the 
Saviour. You my Christain Friends need 
no such evidence. You have the wit- 
ness of the spirit in your hearts. 
But I present them to show you that if 
you are to understand the old testament 
Scriptures prophetically you must be on 
the watch at every turn to find your master 
there, to open your minds and lead you 
through that long treasure house of typic 
and prophetic jewels. There are other 
treasures there. There are moral treasures 
there. There are ethical treasures there. 
There are historic treasures there. There 
are proverbial and axiomatic treasures 
there. 

There are symphonic and melodic treas- 
ures there. These you can undetstand. 
But if you are to understand the deeper, 
the heart-moving, the soul-cleansing, the 
man-building world-converting power of 
the Old Testament, you need to keep a 
sharp lookout for the presence of your 
Saviour walking in His awful splendor 
and majesty among the types and the proph- 
ecies. Bring these close up to your heart. 
Let them touch your inner life and you 
will receive such a view of the surpassing 
magnificence of your Saviour's undertak- 
ing as is worthy of Him. 

III. But all this magnificence of the 
Old Testament is far surpassed by the 
excelling glory of the New. Here you 
are not to look for typical nor prophetic 
truth so much as for vitalizing truth. If 
the Old Testament is the star of the soul, 
the New Testament is the Sun. Here the 
full blaze of the Father's lasting love and 
of the Son's flaming zeal and of the Spirit's 
burning power come forth. 

When you want to read your Heavenly 
Father's Heart listen to the lofty utter- 
ances that fall from the lips of His Son. 
When you want to read your Saviour's 
inmost soul read these marvelous records 
His co-temporaries and companions left of 
Him. • When you want to be lifted from 
torpidity and indifference ; When you 



334 



UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES. 



want to be made mighty in thought, 
speech, action, character and life, let that 
blessed Holy Ghost as set forth in the 
New Testament have full sway. I know 
you can get intellectual light on the New 
Testament from history, from science, from 
commentaries. But when you want to 
understand them vitally. When you want 
to feel them sweep you along like a rush- 
ing tide. When you want them to nerve 
you for duty and equip you for battle. 
When you want them to strengthen you 
so that you can say, here I stand let all 
the universe of sin and sinners of hell and 
devils of death and judgment come on ! 
Then take the vitalizing views of Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost which are displayed 
in the New Testament. 

The Scriptures will then be to you real 
words from God. They will pour into 
your life every kind of blessing. They 
will move every faculty of your being wi*h 
power. In the arsenal of Washington 
there are many kinds of guns, all of them 
can do execution when loaded. If they 
are not loaded a child may play around 
them, a bird may perch on them. But 
when they are loaded then nothing is 
wanted but the lighted fuse to hear the 
roar and crash of battle and see the power- 
ful execution of artillery. Now this 
illustrates the difference between a man 
ivho understands the Scriptures and the 
man who does not. The man who under- 
stands the Scriptures in the vitalizing sense 
is loaded, place an enemy before Him and 
let a spark of holy lire fall upon his 
ammunition and there is a discharge that 
shakes the city and the country and the 
world. Why do the words of some men 
die as they are spoken ? Why do the 
words of other men go ringing round the 
earth. The reason is that the one class 
loads up with man's word. And the 
other class loads up with the words of 
God. If you want to batter down the 
strongholds of the devil here is your 
ammunition in the word of God. If you 



want only to fire blank Cartridges and 
make a racket you can charge with some- 
thing else. But if you really mean to do 
the best you can to beat the devil and 
bless your fellow men. Charge yourselves 
with the Holy Scriptures. Charge with 
the types. Charge with the prophecies- 
Charge with the vitalizing promises of the 
Gospel. Fill yourselves with them in 
orderly array. Be like a well planned 
warship with a place for every piece and a 
piece for every place. Then when an 
enemy comes along you will have nothing 
to do, but go for the proper piece and 
fire. If you would all do this you would 
keep the sinners of this city hopping. 
They would obtain no rest until they came 
in and surrendered. But remember every- 
thing depends on understanding vitaliz- 
ingly the Scriptures. If you don't under- 
stand them thus and begin to use them, 
you only wOund yourself. 

They will take a back action and like a 
kicking gun do more damage at the breach 
than the muzzle. And you will be at the 
breach. No, you need to understand what 
you are about when you prepare to use 
a machine as big and awful in its capac- 
ities as the Word of God. You would 
not undertake to run an engine if you did 
not understand it. The thing would run 
away with you or explode and blow you 
up, perhaps. But the word of God is far 
more awful and important than all the 
engines that were ever built by man in 
this universe, and if you are going to work 
it, you better take all possible care and 
pains to understand it. And when you 
have become " a workman that needeth 
not to be ashamed rightly dividing the 
word of truth," then you go in the 
might of that word into the battle, you 
unlimber your guns, you take aim and 
shoot at satan and all his crew, and the 
sound of your shooting goes sweeping 
round the world chasing the devils out 
of it. AiiEx. 



Mohammedanism and Christianity 



' And they ■ ■ sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver." — Gen. xxxvii : 28. 



THIS was the mean, mercenary act of 
Joseph's own brethren. The sel- 
fish, mercenary spirit was at the 
front then. The selfish, mercenary spirit 
is at the front now. The Turks, who came 
from Central Asia, conquered the Ishmael- 
ites, who came from Arabia. As the vic- 
torious Romans adopted the religion of the 
vanquished Greeks, so the triumphant Turks 
adopted the religion of the vanquished Ish- 
maelites. These Ishmaelites are the off- 
spring of Hagar, concubine of Abraham. 
This religion is the religion of Mohammed, 
the dreamer of the desert. The European 
Brethren of today are again selling Joseph 
to the Ishmaelites for silver. If the Turks 
did not owe Europe much money, matters 
would be different with the Cretans and 
the Greeks. If it were not for the wall of 
gold, " The Powers " would arise and 
sweep the Turks out of power. 

But as God over-ruled the degradation of 
Joseph for deliverance from famine, so 
God will over-rule the humiliation of 
Greece for deliverance from Mohammedan- 
ism. 

Since the Turks are Mohammedans, it 
will be seasonable, at this time, to look a 
little at Mohammed, as compared with 
Christ, and at Mohammedanism as com- 
pared with Christianity. 

Behold the historic setting of Moham- 
medanism. Arabia was its country ; Mecca 
its capital. Mecca is surrounded with a his- 
toric radiance thatgives it a glamorof humane 
romance. It was here the ancient Arabian 
tribes met to hold their fairs when existing 
feuds were held in truce. It was here the 
infirm and the culprit alike found an 
asylum when every other place proved 
stern and severe. It was within this forest- 
clad valley that the sacred processions 
walked around the black stone which had 
fallen as an amulet of protection from 
Heaven. Here reformers preached ; pris- 
oners were exchanged, and difficulties 



between man and man, tribe and tribe, 
settled ; and, with the accumulative renown 
given it by Mohammed, as the place of 
his birth, his visions, and his teachings, it 
rises up before the modern Mohammedan 
as the spot on earth akin to Heaven. And 
not only Mecca, but also Arabia, has long 
been a region of intensest interest to man- 
kind. Contiguous to Palestine, it was the 
highway between Africa, Europe, and 
India. It was on account of the slow, 
dangerous sailing, considered safer transit 
because it was not till 46 A. D. that ships 
ceased to sail by the coast, and ventured 
out upon the body of the deep. Since then 
the cross has opened up the world. It was 
this overland trade pouring through the 
provinces of Zenobia that enriched the 
palmyra of this Amalekite and accom- 
plished princess whom the Roman Aure- 
lian found it difficult to subdue in 272 
A. D. 

This same trade, however, cultivated the 
predatory spirit of these flying Arabs, 
whose home was the saddle, and whose 
refuge was the desert, — nomadic, wild, 
fiery, and free, they were dashing, daring, 
and brave ; and although Rome laid her 
sceptre over all the other great lands, 
except India and China, yet she never suc- 
ceeded in subduing Arabia. In fact, 
Arabia has never been subdued. It is a 
lamentable fact that the Roman Church 
followed the example of the Roman state 
and never made any sustained effort to 
convert Arabia. For this neglect, both 
church and state have run rivulets of 
blood, drawn by the swords of Arabians. 

The time came, under Mohammed and 
his successors, when these independent 
tribes united under one crescent, and 
marched forth for the destruction of the cross. 
They forgot that the cross is ever at the 
root of the crescent. No cross, no cres- 
cent, is the law of the universe. The 
refugee Jews and Christians were the 



340 



MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



first victims, and out and on rolled the 
tide of conquest, till it reached far-off India 
and threatened the whole of Europe. 

These desert rangers, masters of horse- 
manship and arms, capable of long fasts 
and forced marches, glowing with hatred 
and prowess, were finally checked by the 
illustrious Charles Martel, King of the 
Franks, on the battlefield of Poitiers. The 
Mohammedans had gained possession of 
Bordeaux, and over-run Southern France, 
as far as the Loire. As one traverses the 
fair and historic regions of the Mediter- 
ranean, and sees Chaldea, Armenia, Persia, 
Assyria, Asia Minor, and even Palestine 
still possessed by the representatives of 
these sons of devastation, robbery, and 
blood, he cannot refrain from sighing for 
the time when these classic lands shall 
emerge from the barbarous exactions of 
the Turk. 

At the rise of Mohammedanism, how- 
ever, there was crying need of reform. 
The Roman Empire was weakened by 
luxuriant effeminacy. The Jews had 
abandoned the Old Testament, and fol- 
lowed the Talmud. The Koreish Mono- 
theists of Arabia had relinquished the one 
God, and fallen into gross idolatries. The 
Eastern branch of the Church had given 
up its missionary spirit, and abandoned 
itself to the schismatic dissensions, and 
the Western Church was partially para- 
lyzed by the inteiiocutary war with the 
Eastern. The black wings of suspicion 
were in the air. Men of thought deplored 
the departure of the Church from the 
purer and simpler faith. Maryolatry had 
set in, and displaced the Paraclete. The 
Greek word for Mohammed was periclyte, 
which means ' illustrious.' This was an 
omen that urged the usurper forward, and 
opened the gates of Christendom to receive 
him. He was the incarnate Paraclete that 
was to be sent, and so, between persuasion, 
on the one hand, and the sword on the 
other, he ripped up the churches, and pre- 
pared the way for the Mosques. 

Nor was the worship of Mary the only 
trouble with the Church. Statues, pic- 
tures, images were the rage of the times, 



and it would seem that Mohammed had 
neither small nor few reasons for believing 
that when he attacked the Christians he 
attacked idolaters. 

When under him these Arabian reform- 
ers knelt upon the naked rocks of their 
sterile soil, and said, " I dedicate myself to 
thy service, oh Allah," and then rising 
joining the ranks, grasping the sword, 
rushed on beneath the sharp, ringing cry 
of their desert leader, with " there is no 
God but Allah " as their battle cry, it is 
little wonder that lapsed hordes of 
unarmed Christendom fled right and left 
before them, and subsequently fell in 
behind them to swell their armies. Such 
victories were sweet to these Arabians, 
who felt they were not only sweeping 
the earth from idolatries, but also aveng- 
ing the protracted wrongs of their outcast 
ancestor, Ishmael. But even these intense 
fighters for Allah could not long withstand 
the usual temptations which beset con- 
querors. The truth was too tame and 
commonplace, and so, after Mohammed's 
death, the most remarkable myths were 
invented to invest his life with that 
praeternatural glory which would com- 
mand the wonderment and homage of the 
world. 

According to these myths, Allah threw 
upon the first particle of created dust a 
bright light which foretokened the coming 
prophet, and then addressed the particle, 
saying, " In thee rest my light, for thee I 
have spread the soil, and made the waters 
to flow, and have raised the Heavens." 
This light appeared on the forehead of 
each progenitor of Mohammed till in full 
flush it was in him embodied. 

Adam, Abraham, and Ishmael possessed 
this strange prophetic scintillation, and the 
reason of Sarah's vindictive wrath was 
because it shone on Ishmael's, and not on 
Isaac's brow. The story of Adam and 
Eve is wrested, too, from its historic set- 
ting to enhance the glory of Mohammed. 
Separated in some mystic manner from 
Eve, he found his way to India and Cey- 
lon, and on the summit of a lofty peak in 
Ceylon to this day is shown the imprint of 



MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



341 



his foot, and hence came to be named 
Adam's Peak. Eve, however, travelling 
in an opposite direction, made her lonely 
way to Mecca, whither Adam, by an angel 
summoned to rejoin her, in gratitude 
reared the sacred kaaba. The black aero- 
lite from Heaven marked the spot till the 
time should come when the great pro- 
phet should arrive and bless it forever with 
his 2^'esence. This stone is now revered 
by every Meccan pilgrim, as, indeed, is 
the kaaba itself, as the standing witness 
through all the ages for the one true God. 
This kaaba was, during the flood, obliter- 
ated with mud ; but when Ishmael, fleeing 
from the wrath of Sarah, reached the 
place with the bright light shining on his 
brow, he recognized the site, and rebuilt 
the structure. Here, too, when, with his 
mother, longing for the water they so much 
craved, while despairingly digging in the 
sand with his boyish heel, a clear, cooling 
stream sprang up, and there remains to 
refresh the thirsty at the present day. 

Nor did Abraham forget, nor forsake 
his favorite boy. He visited him in his 
Heaven-appointed home, and finding him 
married to an Amalekite of somewhat 
shrewish temper, secured her divorcement 
from his high-born son, whereupon Abra- 
ham helped him to rebuild the kaaba, and 
the sacred light thereafter upon his brow 
became more bright and beautiful. These 
myths also enwreathe the birth of Moham- 
med with wondrous glory. Prophets pre- 
dicted his coming four centuries before his 
advent. His mother's whole body became 
luminous when he was being born. Gab- 
riel, at his conception, came to the kaaba, 
and proclaimed universal joy. The earth 
was refreshed with a rain that re -invested 
it with verdure. Devils were swept into 
the sea, and when Mohammed was born 
he immediately knelt in ardent prayer. 
But all these inventions told about 
Mohammed by others are eclipsed by those 
he tells about himself. Here are a few 
samples : Gabriel came to him while walk- 
ing in the fields, and announced his 
mighty mission. On another occasion he 
was visited by God himself, and on still 



another he was conveyed in one night first 
to Jerusalem, then to Heaven, and next to 
Mecca. The story of that night is the 
most monstrous in its magnificent false- 
hood of any in human annals. It is as 
follows : Gabriel, the Great, approached 
him as the sun had gone down, bringing 
the waters of ablution. Having cleansed 
his body, he took out his heart and filled 
it with celestial knowledge ; and after 
having completed the kaaba circuits, 
dressed him in white robes of victory. The 
illustrious turban he placed on his head 
was made 7,000 years before Adam, and 
till he came to wear it, it was defended 
against accident, or seizure by 40,000 
angels. Borak, the celestial horse, then 
by Gabriel was called. His far-extending 
wings reached either verge of the horizon. 
Gabriel himself held the stirrup while 
Mohammed mounted. Michael placed the 
reins in his hands. Another angelic celeb- 
rity arranged the saddle-cloth, and 
Mohammed was off for Jerusalem. Legions 
of angels, accompanied by all the prophets, 
headed by Elijah, were there assembled to 
meet him when, after receiving their dis- 
tinguished courtesies, Borak, the horse of 
the Heavenly pastures, sped with him up 
to Heaven. After the grandest sort of a 
reception, he returned to Mecca, and to 
victory. Such fictions serve to show the 
arrogant assumptions to which human 
nature can soar, and the deep deceptions to 
which it can sink. 

How supremely presumptious does all 
this appear in the light of the real history 
of this arch impostor. He inherited from his 
mother the well-known malady of epilepsy. 
As for his father, he died two months 
before Mohammed was born. His mother, 
probably on account of her disease, gave 
him in charge of a wet nurse, who carried 
him to the desert. At the age of four he 
had an epileptic fit, which so alarmed his 
nurse that she returned him. Having been 
born April 13, 569 A. D., his father being 
dead, and mother being ill, his grandfather 
nourished him till he died, when his uncle 
took him in charge. At the age of 24, he 
had achieved such success as the com- 



342 



MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



mercial agent of the wealthy widow 
Kadija that she married him, and though 
fourteen years his senior, made him an 
excellent wife. His extensive and varied 
travels as her agent brought him into con- 
tact with Christianity and Hebraism. 
His favorite servant, Seid, was an Abyssin- 
ian Christian, and his epilepsy gave him 
those trance-like moods and incoherencies 
of mind, which, among a superstitious peo- 
ple, fitted him for such wholesale impos- 
tures as he afterwards practiced so suc- 
cessfully. At first he was associated with 
a small society of reformers. From this 
he aspired to be their leader, then their 
prophet, and finally their conqueror. To 
fulfil such functions he must have author- 
ity. While in a cave with his family, he 
evidently completed the plans that had 
been maturing in his mind. Here in this 
cave he said Gabriel appeared to him, and 
gave him his commission as prophet. The 
history of the case, however, clearly 
proves the commissioner was all in 
Mohammed's mind. He adopted the Old 
Testament Scriptures, and also the New, 
and made them contribute prophets as 
fore-runners of Himself. Even Jesus was 
but one of the stars that pointed to his 
coming. He borrowed from the Koreish- 
ites their kaaba, and traditions. He bor- 
rowed extensively from Christianity, and 
adopted even its Paraclete. He framed an 
ecclectic composite which his calculating 
mind assured him was adapted to the 
times, and also to the camp of conquest. He 
always had a dream when exigencies arose 
or any new doctrine was needed to render 
a project practicable. 

But he was not by any means unim- 
peded in his progress, nor uninterrupted in 
his pretensions. The Hanifs, with whom 
he had formerly been associated, would not 
receive him other than as a pretender, and 
an impostor ; and of the sixty who adhered 
to him only six admitted his prophetic 
claims. The tide of initial popularity soon 
turned to a swell of persecution. So 
strongly did the storm rage that, with his 
father-in-law, Abu Bekre, he was obliged 
to flee from Mecca to Medina. This flight 



has become famous in Mohammedanism, 
as it marks the first stage in the new 
departure to which the system owes its 
success, and renown. The persecuted pre- 
tender now resolved on a new plan. If 
others used force, he would also. If others 
drew the sword, he had even a better 
opportunity of a large following than they. 
The wild sons of Ismael that thronged the 
desert would listen to the bugle notes of 
war, and carry forth his enterprises by the 
sword, and the bow. He left Mecca July 
16, 622 A. D. This date ever since has 
been called the Hegira, and dates the 
Mohammedan Era. And, indeed, well it 
may, for but for this flight he and his 
cause had been forever ruined. Medina 
gave him a camping ground. It became a 
rallying point, and to it as a centre, at his 
call flocked the freebooters, who believed 
moderately in the Almighty, but abun- 
dantly in looting, and plunder. 

When Mohammed returned to Mecca 
it was not as a moral reformer, nor spiri- 
tual prophet, (although he claimed both) 
but as the chieftain of an army of adven- 
turers, prepared to carry out his commands 
on account of the material prospects before 
them. It was about this time the great 
retrocession took place in Mohammed's 
life. He now evidently deemed his past 
life a failure. He ceased to have confid- 
ence in the power of virtue, and abandoned 
himself to dreams as attestations of his 
authority from Heaven to do whatever he 
listed. At first he seems to have been 
prayerful, humble, and sincere ; now he 
appears as the impostor of all ages, who 
over-rode every law, human and Divine, 
that lay in the way of his ambition. For 
twenty-four years he had lived as a virtu- 
ous monogamist with Kadija ; but now he 
broke even his own laws concerning the 
allowance of wives, and trespassed on the 
marital rights of his best friends. 

He marched upon Mecca with ten thou- 
sand men, and massacred the innocent with 
the guilty. He now from henceforth 
became a fiery despot, a sleazy debauchee, 
a cruel murderer, a high-handed and 
unscrupulous robber. He was, however, a 



MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



343 



man of remarkable tact, though of few 
words ; of inordinate ambition, though gen- 
erous to his friends ; unlearned, but endowed 
with a most extraordinary imagination ; a 
passionate lover of women, and a great 
pretender of grace — a strange composite 
to exist in such fulness in one character. 
Yet it demonstrates the wide and versatile 
range of human nature. His plan of prose- 
lyting was shrewd. He began with Kadi- 
jah ; continued with Zeid, his Christian 
slave ; with Ali, his cousin ; six of his 
neighbors, and so on from this circle out- 
ward, till by successive additions he was 
finally able to sweep, first, the Arabians, 
and then many nations into his fold with 
the sword. His composition of the Koran 
was also astutely managed. He wrote it 
gradually, as circumstances required. It is 
conceded to be elegant in style, but illog- 
ical, blasphemous, and immoral in con- 
tents. He proclaimed it an inspired mir- 
acle, and its evident design was to unite 
under his banner all religions of earth. It 
begins utterly unlike the Christian Scrip- 
tures, with asseverations of its infallible 
truth. It continues by borrowing from the 
Persians, the Jews, and even the Chris- 
tians, many of its dogmas, and even illus- 
trations. It claims that though Abraham, 
Moses, and Jesus were sent of God, yet 
these were all inferior to himself, who was 
to be the last supreme pontiff of mankind. 
It claims not to have originated with 
Mohammed ; but to have been given in 
paragraphs by Gabriel to Mohammed. 
These were edited by Abu Bekr after his 
death, and revised, and expurgated by a 
committee under the supervision of the 
Khalif Ottoman in still later years. 

The system proclaimed in the Koran is 
probably the most unyielding of any of the 
Theologies. It proclaims Allah only, who 
is invested with many of the attributes of 
the Jehovah of the Jews. The very name 
Islam signifies submission, and Mahom- 
medans recognize the force of its author- 
ity. The traveller is often interrupted and 
impressed with the silent solemnity with 
which the Arab guide ties up his camel's 
foot in the desert, and proceeds to pray. 



I have had such events occur in the desert, 
and also when in haste to overtake a 
departing ship. Neither words nor money 
could induce the boatmen to wait till after 
they reached it, because the hour had come 
at sundown, and they must pray to Allah. 
The best I could do was to permit six to 
pray, while the other four rowed and 
prayed by turns. It was a living testimony 
to the exacting power of Mohammedanism. 

The Koran insists upon two things : 
faith, and practice — faith in God, in 
angels, in the Koran, in prophets, in resur- 
rection, in judgment, and in the decrees of 
Allah concerning the doom of the faith- 
less, and the imparadised destiny of the 
faithful; practice in prayer, ablutions, 
almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage. 

Mr. Sales, the translator of the Koran, 
contends that Allah is the true God, under 
another name. That this is true, accord- 
ing to the Islam conception, I have no 
doubt; but that conception has been 
much warped and blunted by misconstruc- 
tions, and misrepresentations, borrowed 
heterogenously from legendary lore, and 
sacred Scripture. 

My own conviction is that Allah himself 
has been borrowed from the Christians' 
Old Testament ; and also the angels which 
figure so conspicuously in the Koran. 
Michael, the friend of the Jews ; Gabriel, 
the angel of revelation, are here. The best 
parts of Mohammedanism are imitations of 
Christianity, and yet it studiously avoids 
the best parts of the Christian system. 

The story of the devil of Islamism is 
plainly borrowed from our Scriptures with 
a twist which makes his fall come from 
refusal to pay homage to Adam instead of 
the Almighty. The Genii which are an 
intermediate race ministering between 
angels and men and sometimes appear as 
fairies, giants and fates, were probably 
drawn from Persian literature and Folk 
Lore, and figure conspicuously in " The 
Arabian Knights." 

It is rather singular that Mohammed- 
anism should adopt or acknowledge the 
authority of the Hebrew Pentateuch, the 



344 



MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



psalms and the Gospels of Christ. The 
object doubtless was as follows: 

It was for a time on every hand denied 
that Mohammed was a true prophet. But 
it was now convenient to quote Deuter- 
onomy 18 : 15, which promised to raise up 
a prophet for Israel from among their 
brethren. The children of Abraham had 
no brethren but the Ishmaelites — therefore 
a great prophet from the Ishmaelites was 
promised ; that prophet must be Moham- 
med. They quote also that " a prophet 
should be raised up like unto Moses," and 
to show that this prophet could not come 
of Israel they quote Dent. 34 : 10, that 
" there arose no prophet in Israel like unto 
Moses," that prophet therefore is Moham- 
med. This is ingenious but illogical. 

The object, however, was to give divine 
authority to Mohammedanism by ground- 
ing it upon those scriptures which were 
known to be inspired and authoritative. 
This still further appears in their Morroco 
and Italian versions of the Gospels in which 
they change the Greek Paraclete to Peri- 
clyte the illustrious, which was the mean- 
ing of the name of their founder. 

The system admits Adam, Xoah, Abra- 
ham, Moses, Jesus as prophets but only 
with the view of confirming Mohammed 
as the sixth final prophet to whom they all 
pointed. The Koran, singularly enough, 
gives the palm of spotless purity only to 
Jesus, and Sir William Morris in his 
treatise on the testimony of the Koran to 
the Jewish and Christian Scriptures demon- 
strates satisfactorily that this testimony is 
unequivocal as to the genuineness and 
authenticity of both. It is claimed also 
that when John the Baptist was required 
to answer whether he were the Christ or 
Elijah or " that prophet " that the phrase 
"that prophet" refers to Mohammed. 
Such are some of the cunning methods by 
which the imposter sought to gain credence 
for his pretensions. 

The man who broke his own rule of 
allowing four wives and by special dispen- 
sation of Allah took nine, and not satisfied 
with these broke into his neighbor's 
pastures as in the case of the wife of Zeid, 



had crying need of some purer system than 
his own to authenticate his blasphemous 
claims. 

The Koran sets forth the resurrection 
and last judgment in the most grotesque 
imagery. It proclaims an intermediate 
state, and promises one hundred fold 
increase of power to the faithful in the 
other life, and seventy-two black-eyed 
beauties in a palace of resplendence 
and peace to all who prove true to Allah. 
The partially righteous shall be purified 
in purgatory, but the really faithful shall 
have their reward at once. Celestial 
maidens are promised by Hindu, Persian 
and Platonian systems. But }:>redestina- 
tion of the most minute events is a part of 
Mohammed's creed ; and this fatalism ever 
gave a reckless and fanatical desperation 
to Islam troops in battle. They could not 
be slain till their time had come. The}' 
could not survive after its arrival. 

In passing through the realms of Turkey 
I observed every Mosque of any respect- 
able dimensions had its lavatory where 
men washed hands, feet and mouths 
before advancing to the circle of prayer. 
I noticed men worshipped silently and 
alone, women not being admitted on 
account of distracting influences on the 
faithful. Five times a day the devou 
formally pray to Allah. And Friday is 
reverenced and kept as a Sabbath for rest 
and worship by the devoted. 

Only rich Mohammedans attempt to 
keep four wives, and only the very wealthy 
and lubidinous add the permitted num- 
ber of six concubines. The divorce laws 
I discovered to be somewhat similar to 
those of Moses, and the example of 
Mohammed himself in extending his matri- 
monial privileges is faithfully imitated by 
the Moslem Rulers. I found, too, that 
punishment for murder was moderate and 
for some petty wrongs severe. 

Fasting is practised during the month of 
Ramadan, and scrupulosity regarding eat- 
ing and drinking with unbelievers is more 
intense in Syria, Asia Minor and Cabool 
than in Delhi, India. Sectarianism pre- 
vails though not to the same extent as in 



MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



345 



Buddhism or Christianity. I discovered 
but three sects and was surprised at the 
unanimity with which they all glorified the 
Koran, Allah and Mohammed. Next to 
Mohammed himself, his father-in-law Abu 
Bekr who succeeded him as Khalif at his 
death 632 A. D., Omar who followed him 
in 634, Othman Ali and Salidin are revered 
and memorialized. Omar especially was a 
man of rare sagacity, decision and courage. 
The statement with which he commenced 
his reign will never be forgotten. " By 
Allah, he that is weakest among you in my 
sight shall be the strongest until I have 
vindicated for him his rights, but him that 
is strongest will I treat as weakest until he 
complies with the laws." 

The Moslem Conquerors were not always 
leagued against the foe. One Gover- 
nor of Damascus, procured the assassination 
of the Khalif Ali, and by butchery and 
ability established the Damascene Khali- 
fate. These Khalifs were known as the 
Omayyads and in their time ruled with 
rigorous cruelty and ever extending vigor. 
In 750 A. D., however, Abbas of 
Khorassan vanquished Merwan, the latest 
Omayyad Khalif, while he was praying in 
a Coptic Church which had been (as multi- 
tudes of others) converted into a mosque. 
This began what has been known as the 
Abbasidian dynasty, but on account of its 
cruelty Spain revolted and founded a Khali- 
fate of her own. The barbarous massacre 
of the eighty-nine Omayyad leaders who 
had survived defeat by Abbas led to this 
revolt. The famous Abdul Rahman, the 
only one of the ninety leaders who escaped, 
retired to Spain and there founded the 
Omyyad power. 

The popular stream of the Abbasides set 
toward the valley of the Euphrates and 
there founded Bagdad, which for a long 
time became the centre of learning. This 
was achieved mainly through the illustrious 
Al Haschid, who upon ascending the 
Khalifate throne A. D. 786, encouraged 
learning with such accomplished zeal as 
was felt throughout the earth. 

In 641 Amir overran Egypt and the 
march of Mohammedanism was so steady 



and persistent that in 1000 A. D. it began 
to invade far off India. The Great Mogul 
Empire however was not established there 
till 1301 A. I). Here with a resplendence 
that probably never has been surpassed 
did the great empire rise till cresting in the 
illustrious Akbar and Shah Jehan it shone 
far and near as the radiant realm of the 
East. During the Sepoy mutiny 1857, 
however, it finally fell before those gleam- 
ing arms that had been for ages furbishing 
for the fray in the far-off and unsuspected 
Isle of Britain. The last Emperor of a 
dynasty once fair and magnificent but now 
weakened with luxury and vice, was cap- 
tured in the political capital of Delhi after 
a long resistance, and banished for life. 
This land of philosophy, literature 
and religion was rescued from the 
tyranny of centuries and placed under a 
Christian sceptre. The " Galilean" again 
had conquered. Such felicitous results, 
however, have not even yet been attained 
in other parts of Mohammedanism. The 
blow which Saladin struck the crusaders in 
Palestine 1187 A. D., still rings down the 
centuries and throughout the regions made 
sacred by the hallowed scenes in the life 
of the Son of God. 

Constantinople, the early Eastern capi- 
tal of Christianity captured by Moham- 
med the Second, in 1453, still maintains its 
sway under subsequent Sultans. Bujt this 
great event proved greater than was 
dreamed of at the time. Results have 
proved there stood a God amid the car- 
nage, keeping guard above his own. Had 
not Constantinople been taken by the Turks 
America even yet might not have heen dis- 
covered by the Christians. Education, 
science, art, and all the rich results that 
in a thousand nameless ramifications floiv 
therefrom might not have as at present 
existed. And this is the reason. When the 
Mohammedans captui'ed Constantinople they 
blocked the chief highway of trade ajid com- 
merce between the West and East. 

This blockade in after years set such men 
as Columbus thinking, and they finally con- 
cluded that possibly a way to the East might 
be opened up by steering due West. The 



3-46 



MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



expedition of Columbus was undertaken, and 
the results are khown to the world. 

The year 1492 shines like a new 
Epiphany over the face of the nations, and 
the successes of Columbus, Vespucci and 
many others in the Western hemisphere 
have led to minute explorations over every 
sea, round every land. Accurate sound- 
ings have been taken, correct geographical 
boundaries established. The revengeful 
Moorish pirates have been swept from the 
seas and the world has been ushered for- 
ward toward its predicted era of millennial 
power and glory. The African races are 
now beginning to feel the encroachments 
of Christian sceptres. The unrestricted 
villainy of the slave trade "is now nearly 
corralled. The Mohammedans who have 
been its chief patrons once again feel the 
tread of the British coming to the rescue 
of their victims, and the Madhi of the 
Soudan and the hard-featured human 
thieves of the dark continent shall be 
suppressed. The influence of Mohammed- 
anism generally upon the nations has been 
mostly evil. It has diminished the popula- 
tions of all lands it has touched by its 
baneful, civil and domestic government. 
It has blighted many of the fairest and 
most historic and fruitful realms. It has 
thrown to the ground the finest cities, the 
fairest works of Art, the noblest produc- 
tions of Science. It holds its people under 
a pall of oppression that makes the traveller 
feel the pressing burden of a sigh, the 
falling dew drop of a tear as he passes 
through its territory. 

We have dwelt thus long upon Moham- 
med and Mohammedanism because its arms 
are again threatening the world. Because 
its butchery of Christians are once more 
reddening the East with gore. Because I 
think in the near future Providence will 
disclose a plan by which the world will be 
delivered from the sword of the Turk. 
Because engaged as we are in praying and 
giving: for the salvation of this world we 
ought to be familiar with the legions that 
fight against us most fiercely in front. 
The Turk lies between us and the Asiatic 
masses. 

How charming it is to turn from 
Mohammed to Jesus ! He was no such 



dreamy pretender. He was no hypocriti- 
cal blasphemer. He was no lustful adult- 
erer. He was no unscrupulous robber. 
He was no pitiless murderer. Xo 
historian has ever been able to point to a 
blemish in His life. Xo contemporary 
could truly speak a word against his pur- 
ity. He could stand up in the presence of 
his most searching foes and cry. " Which 
of you accuseth me of sin '?" Xot in all the 
ranks of Mahommedanism, nor among any 
of the sons of men, has there risen one 
comparable to Jesus of Xazareth. He was 
the one pure-minded, high-spirited thinker. 
He was the one most tender and compassion- 
ate lover. He was the one sincere, fearless, 
and uncompromising utterer of original, and 
fundamental truth. He was the one Mend 
of humanity, who showed His fidelity by 
his life, and His affection by His death. 
Xo words can express His superiority. He 
rises as high above all other men as the 
Heavens above the earth. The system he 
established was free from the falsities and 
cruelties of Mohammed, and full of the 
perfections of eternity, and of God. His 
is the only absolutely renovating system 
in the world. It is everlastingly elevat- 
ing, expanding, and progressive. It sets 
its votaries above the other peoples of the 
earth. England and America stand as 
exhibits of its power. And if we were but 
more Christlike we would be more power- 
ful. We would be more powerful as a 
nation, as churches, and as persons. All 
power in Heaven and on earth is given 
unto Christ. He who wants power needs 
but to ask Him. When that power is ours 
we will never sell a Joseph into bondage, 
and we will never vote for men who will 
not vote for international salvation, instead 
of international slaughter. The man who 
promotes the settlement of national differ- 
ences by friendly speech promotes the 
coming of the happy time when nation 
shall not lift up sword against nation, 
neither shall men learn war any more." 
Away, then, to the rear with men who 
would spread political principles by the 
sword, or religious opinions by slaughter. 
We need no man to lead in either church 
or state who will, for money, or any other 
consideration, sell our Josephs into bondage. 



Perseverance 



And ye shall he hated of all men for My name's sake; but he that shall (upomeinj/s, stay 
under) endure to the end shall be saved." — Mark xiii : 13. 



ANY a prize is lost for want of 
endurance. I use the word 
(upomeinas, endure) here in the 
sense of perseverance, persistence, contin- 
uity. In this sense the Saviour used it on 
several occasions. With this meaning 
Paul employed it quite a number of times. 
With this meaning we shall use it now. 

The first thing a wise man does is to 
find the best course. The second thing 
he does is to continue on that course. The 
Creator has set us a high example in this 
matter. He selected the best plan for the 
workings of nature. He persists in that 
plan. 

The persistence of all the forces of 
nature, and powers of grace, set forth this 
fact. The steadfastness of the earth, the 
constancy of the sea, the regularity of the 
sun, the fixedness of the stars, the invari- 
ableness of gravitation — all illustrate the 
stability of the laws of nature. 

But man is mutable, inconstant, fluctua- 
ting, vibrating ever between wisdom and 
folly, virtue and vice, between salvation 
and sin, between joy and sorrow. Your 
own experiences teach you this is true. 
Your own observations assure you that 
many a promising life is wrecked by such 
vacillations. You all want to shun such 
wreckage. To help you in doing so, let 
us look at three points, — 

I. The forces that draw the wrong 
way. 

II. The forces that draw the right 
way. 



III. The results of persistently obeying 
the powers that dravj in the best direction. 

I. The forces that draw the wrong 
way. 

Some of these are in yourselves. Much 
is said about the dignity of human nature. 
But the only true way to look at our 
nature is as God looks at it. He declares 
it to be very bad. His record concerning 
it is terrible. He is its best historian. He 
sees its whole history from the beginning. 
And He said in antediluvian times, 
that " Every imagination of the thoughts 
of man's 'heart' was only evil contin- 
ually," and " All flesh had corrupted his 
way upon the earth." Nor were people 
much better in Abraham's day. "The 
men of Sodom were wicked and sinners 
before the Lord exceedingly." In King 
David's time " They had all gone astray ; 
they had altogether become filthy; there 
was none that did good, no, not one." In 
Solomon's day one man among a thousand 
(living righteously) he had found; but a 
woman among all these he had not found." 
In Isaiah's period such was the condition 
of society that " From the sole of the foot 
even unto the head there was no ' moral ' 
soundness in it. It was full of wounds, 
and bruises, and putrefying sores." In 
Jeremiah's age, " As a fountain casteth 
out her waters so she (Jerusalem) cast out 
her wickedness ; violence and spoil were 
heard in her ; before me continually were 
grief and wounds." " The heart was 
deceitful above all things, and desperately 




352 



PER SE VERANCE. 



wicked." In Hosea's era such was the 
moral and spiritual condition of the best 
people that that prophet exclaimed, " O 
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." During 
our Saviour's advent such was the inward 
corruption that He said, " From within 
out of the heart of men proceed evil 
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, 
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, 
pride, foolishness." And so far was 
human nature gone astray that nothing but 
a re-birth could remedy it. " Verily, ver- 
ily, I say unto you, ye must be born again," 
said the Saviour. In St. Paul's time the 
Gentile world was " filled with all unright- 
eous fornication, wickedness, covetousness, 
maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, 
deceit, malignity, whisperers, back-biters, 
haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters, 
inventors of evil things, disobedient to 
parents, without understanding, covenant- 
breakers, without natural affection, implac- 
able, unmerciful." And the Jewish people 
were little better. " Their throat was an 
open sepulchre ; with .their tongues they 
used deceit ; the poison of asps was under 
their lips. Their mouth was full of curs- 
ing, and bitterness ; their feet were swift 
to shed blood ; destruction and misery 
were in their ways. The way of peace 
they had not known, and there was no 
fear of God before their eyes." The gen- 
eral history of men since then is somewhat 
known to you. The world has been reson- 
ant with wars and wickedness, and the 
Church full of bickerings and dissensions. 
You had better make up your minds that 
this world is full of sinners, and that you 
are one of them. If you don't you'll be 
disappointed and defeated. You must 



know you are diseased before you will 
apply for remedy. 

You all know I am no pessimist. You 
have heard me again and again preach the 
most optimistic doctrines. And I did that 
because I believe in God's great and gra- 
cious purposes. I believe He has the 
most glorious things for humanity, and 
that He is now preparing you to receive 
them. But when it comes to giving a 
moral diagnosis of human nature, I tell 
you I cannot put the knife in anywhere 
along the line of history without drawing 
corruption. People always have been bad. 
They are bad now. We belong to the bad 
ones, for there are no good ones. And 
this badness is in us. It is in our hearts, 
and minds, and blood. It is in our veins, 
and nerves, and arteries. It is in our 
muscles, and ligaments, and tissues. We 
are, morally aud spiritually speaking, 
charged with evils through and through. 
And these evils — evil passions, evil desires, 
evil ambitions, evil hopes, evil yearnings — 
form a solid phalanx to drive, drag, and 
whip us in the wrong direction. Then, 
too, everybody about us is loaded with the 
same evil forces, and these putrid powers 
prevail in business, and in amusements, 
and in society, and alas, somewhat in 
churches, as well as in solitary individuals. 
They form an array of armies to draw us 
to destruction together. From one view 
point it looks as though the devil were 
having everything his own way. It seems 
as if he had mounted this world as a man 
mounts a chariot ; hitches his horses to it, 
get his passengers in it, and posts down to 
damnation — most people are willing to help 
him by some saloon, or theatre, or dance, 
or legislation, or policy, or stupefaction, or 



PERSE VERANCE. 



353 



noise, or show that prevents the passen- 
gers from hearing the horrid yells of hell 
till they all get there together. If you 
could see clearly, you would behold a most 
wondrous and awful sight. You would 
behold Satan riding on the topmost seat 
of the chariot of this world. You would 
see him hold the reins, and head towards 
destruction. You would see the great, 
yawning gulf down which it is spinning to 
the bottomless abyss. You would see the 
air thronged with demons, gallery upon 
gallery grinning and glorying in the horrid 
havoc. You would see them muffle them- 
selves in darkness, and peer out through 
the gloom, praising the skill of their 
chief, and leerfully laughing at the millions 
of deluded mortals he daily launches into 
the black billows of burning despair. Such, 
alas, is the horrible drawing and driving 
power of evil — evil within us, evil around 
us, evil before us, evil behind us, evil under 
us, evil above us, evil only evil, and that 
continually; evil so strong, evil so vigilant 
that no good proposal can be made with- 
out attack, and no good person can sin- 
cerely try to crush the curse without being 
himself crushed. The man who will des- 
troy evil must himself die. He must lose 
his life to win. But he is in good com- 
pany. And the victory is immense, and 
eternal. " He that loseth his life for My 
sake (saith Jesus) shall find it." 

II. Now let us turn from the forces 
that lead in the wrong way to the powers 
that lead in the right way. 

The energies of evil are mighty ; but the 
forces of good are mightier. The allies of 
vice are powerful ; but the friends of vir- 
tue are more powerful. Those are finite ; 
these are infinite. Those are permitted; 
but these permit them. The devil, and 



the world, and sin cannot go one-millionth 
part of an inch farther than the Heavenly 
powers permit. Why God permits evil, it 
is not my province now to explain. He 
has a purpose. It is wise and benevolent. 
But that purpose we are not now to pur- 
sue. The point we pursue is the point in 
the text. If you ever come to the point 
when you give up the devil, and leap down 
from his chariot, and place yourself in 
charge of Christ, faithfully and fully, you 
shall be hated of all sinful men for the 
sake of His name. You shall be shunned, 
and criticised, and branded as a monte- 
bank, fanatic, or fool, just as wise, earnest 
people used to be. But no matter who or 
what is against you, if you are faithful 
you shall be able to endure (that is, stay 
under it all) to the end. 

This is a most important message for 
you who mean business for God at this 
time. Many of you will be soon going 
a-summering here and there. The temp- 
tation will be for you to give your religion 
a vacation, and come back here in Sep- 
tember waxen cold in your love, and shift- 
less in your zeal. Now, at this point I 
dearly desire the second point to touch 
you, and to help you. That second point 
teaches that the forces that are on your 
side if you are a true Christian, are greater 
than all the forces that can be brought 
against you. If Satan should leap from 
his place in holding the reins that rule the 
evil world, and call for all the help of 
earth and hell, and empty the invisible 
world of all its legions of mighty demons, 
and set them in a long drawn array that 
would go circling round the earth, and then 
call all his troops off from attacking 
any other soul but thine, and enfiladed 
them so that you would be attacked by a 



354 



PER SE VERA NCE. 



terrible column in front, and a fierce col- 
umn in rear, and a mighty column on the 
right, and a powerful column on the left, 
and then call out to all his legions, fight 
neither with small nor great, but only with 
this solitary soul, so that you would be 
attacked at every point, in every pore, in 
every thought, in every feeling, at every 
turn, — yet if you are " staying under in 
faith, and prayer, and love, and obedience, 
this fierce, concentrated host could not 
harm a hair of your head. You are men 
of destiny. You are surrounded by the 
greatest powers in existence. These forces 
are so close, constant, sagacious, and strong 
that no enemy can come between you and 
them, and " no weapon formed against you 
shall prosper." Sacred history is charged 
with illustrations of this truth. The Syrian 
King was warring against Israel. Elisha, 
" the man of God," guided the King of 
Israel in the battle. The Syrians could 
make no progress, and their King was 
"sorely troubled." He thought there 
must be treason in his camp. He called 
his generals together, and said, " Will you 
show me which of us is for the King of 
Israel?" One of his staff replied, " None, 
my lord, O King. But Elisha, the prophet, 
telleth the King of Israel the words that 
thou speakest in thy bed-chamber." The 
Syrian monarch said, " Go and spy where 
he is that I may send and fetch him." The 
spies brought word that Elisha was in 
Dothan. Thither the Syrian King sent 
" horses and chariots, and a great host " to 
capture a single man. He was such a des- 
perate case that they made a night attack, 
and surrounded the city. The servant of 
Elisha rose early that morning, and lo, as 
he went out he saw the city encompassed 
with a mighty host. Shocked and alarmed, 



he rushed back, told the thing to Elisha, 
and exclaimed, "Alas, master, how shall 
we do ?" Elisha calmly answered, " Fear 
not, for they that be with us are more 
than they that be with them." Then the 
prophet prayed that the Lord would open 
his eyes that he might see. When the 
Lord opened his eyes he looked, and 
behold, " the mountain was full of horses 
and chariots of fire round about Elisha." 
Then the prophet prayed again that He 
would smite the Syrian hosts with blind- 
ness. And they were so smitten. Then 
the solitary man went in among them, and 
said, " Follow me," and he led them to 
Samaria, the capital, and gave them up as 
prisoners of war. Here he prevented the 
Israelitish King from falling Upon them, 
and treated them even better than General 
Grant was accustomed to treat such cap- 
tives. Elisha prayed again, and their eyes 
were opened. He prepared great provi- 
sion for them, and sent the army back on 
parole to their Master. This is the only 
case in history of a single man capturing a 
whole army, providing for, and paroling 
them. He was able to do this because 
God was with him. He was God's instru- 
ment. If you are God's man, He will, in 
a higher sense, do the same for you. The 
powerful hosts of the world, and the 
fiery legions of Satan may combine in 
compacted conspiracy, and march against 
you. They may invest, and attack you on 
every side. But if God is with you, you 
will fear them no more than Elisha feared 
the Syrians. Instead of them capturing 
you, you will capture them. " If God be 
for you who can be against you?" " What 
shall harm you if you are followers of that 
which is good ?" Can you find anything ? 
You may search all this universe, and you 



PERSEVERANCE. 



355 



cannot find a person, nor a power that can 
harm yon while God is with yon, and you 
are faithful to Him. He is your defender. 
He is your provider. He is responsible 
for your welfare. He has taken the con- 
tract to see you safely through. If all 
Heaven had to be summoned to keep that 
contract, He would call it into the battle 
rather than have it broken. What man 
undertakes may fail ; what God under- 
takes cannot be made to fail. He has, in 
many places and diversified ways, proved to 
you that He will not forsake you when you 
need Him. He will never, no, never, for- 
sake you if you do not forsake Him. This 
is the lesson of the whole tenor of both the 
works and word of God. He is the strong- 
est, the wisest, the most resourceful Being 
in existence. He has pledged all His 
resources on your behalf. No one ever 
has, and no one ever shall be defeated who 
lives inside those resources. All power 
will be given for your defence, and 
strengthening. You see by this that no 
matter what you are called to endure you 
can persevere till the end. If you do not 
persevere, • it will be your own fault, and 
you shall have to take the penalty. That 
penalty will be the failure of all your 
undertakings. It will be your total and 
everlasting failure. It is all very well to 
begin in good shape, and continue in good 
form. But it will do you no good if you 
quit before you have finished. You will 
lose all the love, and labor, and expense, 
and thought, and care you have put into 
the good work. Alas ! alas ! ! how many 
start out promisingly, but get weary by the 
way. They begin to look at their neigh- 
bors, and at their sins, and difficulties, and 
stop before they complete the spiritual 
structure of their lives. Satan comes in 



like a flood ; they backslide, and never 
recover. 

In Passaic, New Jersey, where I 
preached, there was a beautiful knoll. It 
rose like a crown above the town. A man 
of means bought and built upon it. The 
plans of the lovely mansion were drawn, 
the cellar dug out, the foundations laid, 
the walls reared, and the roof put on. 
There the unfinished structure rose — the 
joy and hope of every enterprising citizen. 
But in a little while the work was stopped. 
No windows were put in ; no doors were 
hung ; no floors were fully laid. The ele- 
gant brownstone palace was forsaken. The 
winds swept through it. The rains invaded 
it. The elements beat upon it. It was 
substantial and beautiful as far as it was 
carried. But it was not carried far 
enough. There it stood for years — a 
monument of folly of the man who built 
it, because he did not continue to the end. 
It was not only a monument of shame, but 
also of heavy loss. It was of no service to 
him. He lost all he put into •it. Ail his 
plans, his cares, his hopes, his anticipa- 
tions, his ambitions, his money, his toils, 
Lost! Lost! ! Lost! ! ! 

Ah, my back-slidden hearer, what an 
emblem is that of thee ? Thou didst begin 
well, and proceed beautifully. It may have 
been for months. It may have been for 
years. But the time came when you grew 
tired. You gradually gave up private 
reading and prayer. You gradually began 
to break the Sabbath. You gradually quit 
supporting the Gospel. You gradually 
drew off from the Church. You hesitat- 
ingly began to patronize the playhouse, 
and to give way to your easily besetting 
sin. And here you are to-night, with an 
unfinished character on hand. The win- 



356 



PERSE VERANCE. 



dows and doors are not in it. The furni- 
ture and fires are not in it. The walls of 
profession may still stand, and the roof of a 
hapless hope may still rise. But the wild 
winds of passion sweep through you. The 
buzzard birds of prey shelter in you. The 
dust, debris, and detritus of decay are all 
around you, and there you sit while I speak 
thinking of this monument of sin and 
shame. Your ears tingle ; your cheeks 
flush ; your heart melts sorrowfully while 
I speak about it — for you know it is a 
dead loss to you. You have lost all the 
time, talent, thought, prayer, patience, pro- 
fession, money, and power you put into it. 
Your spiritual and moral nature are incom- 
plete. Stark, stern, solemn, and sad is the 
fabric of your life. You have not perse- 
vered. Yon gave way when you should 
have gone on, and lo, you are a wreck, 
unfit for Heaven, unfit for earth, and, in a 
sense, scarce fit for hell. Whereas if 
you had but persevered ; if you had stead- 
fastly persisted in rearing the palace of 
your character, it would have been well 
furnished and protected to-night. It would 
be now to you a joy, instead of a sorrow ; 
a glory, instead of a grief. Vitalizing influ- 
ences would be flowing forth from you. 
Beautiful powers would be living within 
you ; and you would be now progressing 
in the power and glory of an immortal 
hope such as is given those who are perse- 
vering to the end. Ah, what shall I say 
to you to induce you to recommence your 
great life work. If you set out for Europe, 
you do not jump overboard before you get 
there. If you start for California, you 
persevere till you reach the country. Shall 
you have less zeal and perseverance in get- 
ting to Heaven ? Shall you persevere in 
pursuing the things that pass, and perish? 



And shall you not persevere in pursuing 
the things that never pass, and never per- 
ish ? Shall you persist in pursuing the 
the things that, after a few years at most, 
you must give up, and not persevere in 
pursuing the supreme joys that you will 
never be called upon to part with ? Ah, 
what sad insanity has seized you that you 
should give more time, care, and persist- 
ence to secure things that do not secure 
you than to obtain things that do secure you 
forever ? Sensible men ever give most 
persistence to obtain things that are most 
valuable, and but little persistence to 
secure things that are least valuable. You 
have seen how men persist to obtain some- 
thing of great moment. They put forth 
perseverance in proportion to the value of 
the thing they are after. All I ask is that 
you apply the same sensible principle to 
the service of your Lord. That service is 
the most important, therefore, should have 
the most persistence. It is the most valu- 
able, therefore, it should have the greatest 
perseverance. It is the most enduring, 
therefore, it should call forth the most 
endurance. It is true you may.be hated 
of all men for your Master's sake. But 
your abundant consolation is, that if you 
endure to end you " shall be saved." 

III. This leads us to consider the 
results of perseverance. 

1. " Shall be saved." Look at what 
you shall be saved from. From the gnaw- 
ings of a guilty conscience ; from the heart- 
ache of a broken life ; from the pangs and 
pains of disappointment ; from the stabs 
and stings of the fangs of sin ; from the 
cruel deceit and perfidy of Satan ; from 
the taunts, and scoffs, and snares of a 
deluding world ; from the despair, and the 
despondencies of the yawning grave ; from 



P ER SE VER A NCE. 



357 



the throes and terrors of the great judg- 
ment throne ; from the anguish and agony 
of Divine condemnation ; from the deep, 
dire distresses of an eternal hell on fire 
within thee, and a hell on fire below thee, 
and a hell on fire above thee, and a hell on 
fire around thee. Saved ! Saved ! ! 
Saved! ! ! 

From every ill of every woe, 
From every woe of every foe. 

2. Nor shall you only be saved from 
all evil ; but you shall be saved in all good. 
You shall be enwrapped, and permeated 
with good. You shall be made good in 
your affections, and feelings. You shall 
be made good in your thoughts and senti- 
ments. You shall be made good in your 
principles and purposes. You shall be 
made good in your will, and that will shall 
move and mould you into nobility of char- 
acter. That character shall be shown in 
your changed words, deeds, and habits. 
You shall steadily progress from know- 
ledge to knowledge, from grace to grace, 
from doing to doing, from accomplishment 
to accomplishment, till you shall stand in 
the perfection of your character in Christ 
Jesus. That character nothing can break 
down, because nothing can break Christ 
down. Securely saved in God, you are as 
safe from all evil as He is Himself, so long 
as you live in Him. All His power will 
defend you ; all His love enfold you ; all 
His wealth enrich you ; all His light illume 
you ; all His joys enrapture you — because 
you are saved in Him, 

3. Nor shall you be only saved from 
evil and saved in Him, but you shall- be 
saved to all the best powers and persons in 
existence. You shall be saved to love and 
joy and peace, saved to gentleness and 
goodness, temperance and truth ; saved 



to all the nobility of this universe. Great 
has been the struggle going on, magnificent 
the victories that have been won, glorious 
the contestants in the strife. 

The moral and ethical kings and queens 
of humanity have their meeting places in 
the skies. You shall be saved to kinghood 
and queenhood there with them. You 
shall be saved to whatever is lovely in 
Heaven, to whomsoever is glorious in 
bliss, to whatsoever is blessed in destiny. 
Can you think of anything you need those 
words do not imply ? Make a list of wants 
you would like to have supplied and you 
will find them more than met in the Word 
of God. Men come to me in their distress. 
This day one dear fellow came. He was 
weeping tears of fire from a heart of flame. 
He was sobbing sobs of wildest woe. He 
was well dressed as any man need be. He 
had been prosperous in Boston business 
but domestic infelicities drove him to 
drink and drink was driving him to suicide. 
He said he had come for help ! help ! ! 
help ! ! ! I took his trembling hand, I told 
him there was help, abundant help, in 
" The Mighty to Save," but that he would 
have to stop wrong and begin right ; that 
this he could do only by coming to Christ 
for power. He fell on his face and cried 
pray ! pray ! ! pray ! ! ! for me. I prayed 
and he trembled and wept and believed, 
but soon that trembling gave place to 
triumph, those tears glistened with the sun- 
shine of joy, those hard features relaxed 
into the soft lineaments of love, that wild- 
beating, desperate heart became calm as 
the smooth surface of a summer sea, and 
that soul was sweetly saved. But what 
will all that be to that soul if he do not 
persevere; the very memories of relapse 
will drive the lines of dark despair deeper 



358 



PERSEVERANCE. 



into the fibre of his life. But if he perse- 
vere the memories of that scene will be like 
luminous strands to hold him closer to 
glory's throne ; therefore oh Christian 
whatever else you do or do not do, Perse- 
vere ! Persevere ! ! Persevere ! ! ! until the 
end and you too " shall be saved." 

And if the Christian should persevere in 
serving God, surely you, oh sinner, should 
persevere in seeking Him. 

You say you have sought and have not 
found thy Lord ; then thou hast not sought 
Him in the right way ; thou hast been hold- 
ing on to some sin ; so long as thou holdest 
on to sin thou canst not be saved. The 
Saviour came to save from sin. If thou 
regardest iniquity in thy heart He will not 
hear thee ; but when thou givest up every 
sin and seekest him with all thy heart He 
cannot but save thee ; He has made this 
pledge to thee. God has assured thee in 
His word that in the day thou seekest Him 
with all thy heart He will be found of thee. 

He can take no subaltern nor second 



place. It is first and all or none. He is 
supreme and thou must yield Him the 
supremacy. Many have been the souls I 
have been privileged to lead to the King, 
and never yet have I seen one who wanted 
to make terms and conditions with God 
other than He himself has made, that re- 
ceived a satisfactory experience, and on 
the other hand never yet have I seen one 
who came and confidently received and 
relied on God's conditions who did not 
obtain a most satisfactory result. 

Those conditions are : perseverance in 
presenting yourself by faith in his word ; 
perseverance in presenting yourself by 
faith in his son ; perseverance in presenting 
yourself by faith in Himself ; perseverance 
in presenting yourself by faith in His 
spirit ; perseverance in presenting yourself 
by faith in His church ; therefore persevere ! 
persevere ! ! persevere ! ! ! and thou also 
shalt by blessed experience know that he 
who persevereth thus "shall be saved!" 
Amen. 



Preserving the Union* 

" Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." — Psa. cxxxm : 1. 

" Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ■ ■ ■ till we all come in the 
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man unto the measure of 
the stature of the fulness of Christ." — Eph. iv : 3, 13. 



THIS is Memorial Sabbath. It is fit- 
ting we should memorialize the 
dead defenders of our country. 
There is a sense in which they died for us. 
It would be ungracious not to remember 
them. May after May we, therefore, 
cherish their memory. The flowers you 
lay upon their graves are lovely emblems. 
Some of them are noted for their beauty ; 
others for their perfume ; others for their 
sweetness ; others for their symbology, and 
others for their heraldry. But the prin- 
ciple for which our patriots died includes 
these qualities, and many others also. That 
principle is comprehended in the one word 
Union. This principle of Union binds 
together in one vast whole the inorganic 
worlds. Take it away, and the 
fabric of the universe falls to pieces. 
It is the Union of drops of water that 
form the life-giving seas. It is the union 
of the particles of matter that frame the 
productive valleys, hills, and mountains. 
It is the union of the satellites, the planets, 
and the sun that constitutes the solar sys- 
tem. It is the union of such solar systems 
round some most mighty centre that com- 
poses the universe itself. 

The same is true likewise of the organic 
worlds. It is the union of plant to plant, 
of bird to bird, of fish to fish, of beast to 
beast, of man to man, that constitutes the 
coherent fabric of the organic worlds. 
Take that unity away, and you dissolve 
the service of each to all, and all to each. 
No better example of the need of union 



can be found than you see in your own 
bodies. Every part is necessary to the 
highest good of all, and all is needful for 
the highest good of every part. This opens 
up to us our theme, The Union of the 
Nation. It would not be worth while 
speaking on this theme, if it were not for 
dissensions and divisions that threaten the 
welfare of this Republic. There is scarcely 
any department of American life in which 
there are not divisions — divisions in poli- 
tics, schismatics in churches, ruptures in 
families, feuds between persons, clashings 
between schools of thought, squabbles 
between scientists, bickerings about busi- 
ness, dissensions between capital and 
labor. As you very well know, much of 
human time and talent are wasted on dis- 
cords, variances, jarrings, factions, strifes, 
controversies, quarrels, brawls, wars of pas- 
sions, and dire logomachies. It would not 
be wise nor well for me to say that these 
are altogether vain ; for from the slaughter 
grounds of debate truth has oft come forth 
full, free, and crowned. It is right to 
wrangle rather than submit to wrong. It 
is virtuous to contend rather than be van- 
quished by vice. It is noble to litigate 
rather than be deluged by licentiousness. 
But in all this we are never to forget that 
the design of all true battle is an honor- 
able peace ; that the purpose of all manly 
discussion is consistent , unity ; that the 
aim of all Divine variations is to bring 
about the happy time when a renovated 
race shall, in mutual concord, sing, " Behold 



364 



PRESERVING THE UNION. 



how good and how pleasant it is for breth- 
ren to dwell together in unity, endeavor- 
ing to keep the unity of the spirit in the 
bond of peace, till we all come in the unity 
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ." The primitive Hebrew root 
(yachad) translated in our psalm text, 
Unity, signifies " to be one ; to become 
one." And the Greek word ( henotes ) trans- 
lated in our Ephesian text. Unity, signifies 
" to make one in peace again." So that, 
by placing the two together, we gain the 
idea — to become one in peace. 

With this idea of the nation, and of the 
nations, let us approach our theme. And 
when I say, become one in peace, I do not 
merely mean these States, but this world. 
We should be American patriots. We 
should love and live for the welfare of 
America. None should surpass us in 
affection for, and fidelity to this land. It 
is your land. And you are willing to live 
for it, and to die for it. This is well. But 
we should be bigger than our country. We 
should be broader than these States. We 
should be citizens of America. But we 
should also be citizens of the world. The 
old contracted idea of confining our love, 
and our thought, and our efforts to the 
nation in which we live is a barbaric idea. 
The Egyptians had it ; the Persians, the 
Jews, the Greeks, the Romans all had it. 
But in then exclusive barbarity, they 
declined, and fell. The Chinese have it 
now ; the Japanese have it ; all Asiatic and 
African nations have it; the European 
nations have it in part. But the real 
patriotism is the patriotism of humanity. 
This was the patriotism Jesus had. This was 
the patriotism Paul had. And this is the 



patriotism of God. This patriotism is 
spreading with the onward march of 
Christianity. We are touched with the 
patriots of Cuba. We are in sympathy 
with the standings of India. We are 
moved by the unequal efforts of the 
Greeks. We are stirred to the deepest 
depths by the assassinations of the Turks, 
almost as much as if they occurred in some 
part of our own land. This is because the 
enlarging philanthrophy of Christ is taking 
hold of the world, as we rememember that 
" of one blood God has made all nations to 
dwell on the earth." It is proper that such 
a large, liberal, and liberating view should 
be taken by all philosophers, philanthro- 
pists, patriots, and Christians at such a 
time as this. Christianity has shaken the 
manacles from the limbs of humanity. She 
has quickened human thought, brightened 
human intellect, and so illuminated man 
that he sees where his helps are. She has 
shown him how to diminish distance by 
increasing speed ; to diminish labor by 
capturing natural forces ; to decrease dark- 
ness by generating light. And now the 
grand, great, and glorious lesson that the 
whole world needs to learn is, how to dim- 
inish divisions by increasing union. Dan- 
iel Webster, Massachusetts' greatest orator, 
saw with the eye of a true seer the vital 
importance of national union. He saw 
the breach widening, and the crash coming. 
And in his peroration, in his eloquent 
reply to Hayne said, " It is to Union 
that we owe our safety at home, and 
our consideration and dignity abroad. 
It is to the Union that we are 
chiefly indebted for whatever makes 
us most proud of our country • • • • 
every year of its duration has teemed with 
fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings, 



PRESERVING THE UNION. 



365 



and although our territory has stretched 
out wider and wider, and our population 
spread farther and farther, they have not 
outrun its protection, or its benefits. It has 
been to us all a copious fountain of 
national, social, and personal happiness. 
• • • While the Union lasts, we have 
high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread 
out before us for us and our children . Beyond 
that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God 
grant that, in my day at least, that curtain 
may not rise ! God Grant that on my 
vision never may be opened what lies 
behind. When my eyes shall be opened 
to behold for the last time the sun in the 
heaven, may I not see him shining on the 
broken and dishonored fragments of a 
once glorious Union ; on States dissevered, 
discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent 
with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in 
fraternal blood. Let their last feeble and 
lingering glance rather behold the gor- 
geous ensign of the Republic now known 
and honored throughout the earth, still 
full high advanced, its arms and trophies 
streaming in their original lustre ; not a 
stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star 
obscured, bearing for its motto no such 
miserable interrogatory as 4 What is all 
this worth?' nor those other words of 
delusion and folly, 4 Liberty first, and 
Union afterwards,' but everywhere, spread 
all over in characters of living light, blaz- 
ing on all its ample folds, as they float over 
the sea and over the land, and in every 
wind under the whole heavens, that other 
sentiment dear to every true American — 
Liberty and Union now and forever, one 
and inseparable !" This forensic orator 
had his prayer. He did not live to see 
the abyss of slaughter into which disrup- 
tion threw his country after he was gone. 



In the autumn of 1852, as the harvesters 
were gathering the grain, and the country 
was gathering its fruit, amid the goldening 
forests of his Marshfield home, his spirit 
passed away in peace — eight years before 
secession came. But, thank God, reunion 
on a firmer basis succeeded secession. The 
States are united now in one, under the 
constitution of a legal, national unity. No 
disloyal hand dares lift itself against our 
flag. No traitorous state dares fling its 
tawdry baldric to the breeze. All round 
the crystal circles of our Pacific and 
Atlantic shores ; all o'er the favored terri- 
tory of our zone ; over every placid lake ; 
on every fertile plain ; over every flowing 
river ; on every hillside slope ; over every 
craggy peak of every mountain brow, floats 
full, fair and free the symbol of our Union 
— the Flag of the United States. But let 
it be remembered on this Memorial Day 
that we owe these rich results not to the 
men who advocated independent state- 
hood ; nor to the men who would have 
welded more firmly the manacles on 
the slaves ; nor to the men who in 
cowardice, or at the nod of the Pope, 
deserted in the day of battle ; nor to the 
policy of Great Britain, that was secretly 
plotting for the rending of the Republic 
that it might not become a too strong com- 
petitor; nor to the interference of the 
French, as in the first strokes for freedom 
under Washington, — but to the fortitude, 
and loyalty, and lives of the brave men in 
blue, who went to the war, and died that 
their country might live. To-morrow let 
there be a chaplet of flowers laid on the 
grave of every man who gave his life for 
his country. Let no grave in remote copse 
or grassy dell be neglected. Let no grave 
in any crowded cemetery be forgotten. 



366 



PRESERVING THE UNION. 



Let crowning flowers, beautiful, sweet and 
kind (those lovely smiles of nature, telling 
us these patriots shall rise again) be scat- 
tered with fair hands, 'neath moistened 
eyes and softened hearts, as we each, 
remember these brave men died for us; 
for constitutionally speaking, our Union is 
complete, we trust forever, in its great 
leading outlines, through the sacrifice of 
our fallen heroes. 

Next, we need to know what are those 
powers that shall keep it united in its major 
framework not only, but unite it in such 
finished form as shall deliver it from the 
disfigurement of interior feuds and clam- 
orous factions. There is but one set of 
forces that can bring about such devoutly 
to be desired end ; and such finishing pow- 
ers are not to be found in national pride, 
nor in national selfishness, nor even in 
national riches. Nor can they be found in 
the arts, and sciences, and philosophies, 
and diplomacies. Nor do they exist even 
in sage-like political measures, and strate- 
gic preparations for war. We know that 
statesmen say that the best way to main- 
tain peace is to be ready for war. And so 
every country in Europe is ready for war. Our 
White Fleet adds one to her number now 
and then. The arsenals and armories are 
well supplied with men and means. Even 
our schoolboys the other day took Boston 
as a preliminary practice. There never 
was a time in the history of the world 
when there was so much war material, and 
enginery, and machinery as at the present 
day. The whole world is being turned 
into a vast armory — all on the plea that 
the best way to maintain peace is to be 
prepared for war. It would be foolish to 
deny that there is some truth in the state- 
ment that the best way to maintain peace 



is to be ready for war. But it is too small 
a truth, too' expensive a truth, and too 
dangerous a truth for the world's best 
interests. There is a far broader, easier, 
and safer truth than that, that will alone 
bring, and keep a lasting, liberal, loving- 
peace among men and nations. And that 
truth is the truth of our text. It is the 
truth of your God. It is, " Behold how good 
and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren 
to dwell together in unity • • endeavor- 
ing to keep the unity of the spirit in the 
bond of peace • • till we all come in 
the unity of the faith, and of the know- 
ledge of the Son of God unto a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of 
the f ulness of Christ?' Zone this contin- 
ent with these words, and you will have a 
union that will last. Belt this world with 
these truths, and you will have a union 
that will bless all men. Blaze these 
words into the brain and heart of every 
citizen of this earth, and who will want to 
fight ? Who will want to steal ? Who 
will want to swear ? Who will want to 
get drunk ? Who will want to defraud ? 
Who will want to be unkind, or unclean ? 
There are enough of truth in, and power 
behind these simple words to spike every 
cannon, to sheath every sword, to remand 
every man-of-war, to call to eternal truce 
every battalion of earth, and knit in ever- 
lasting union and love the whole human race. 
Why, then, is it not done if it be so easj T ? 
It is because men are foolish. They are so 
foolish that anything that looks in that 
direction is studiously shunned. They 
think they can get along better where there 
is an everlasting racket. They can grab 
more and not be noticed. They can steal 
more and not be caught. They can figure 
more as high officials in uniform, as offi- 



PRESERVING THE UNION. 



367 



cials in arms, as agitators on the forum, as 
combatants of each other. They are like 
the workmen who made the silver images 
of Diana — they are afraid that universal 
peace would place their money-making 
crafts in danger. These they do not want 
to jeopardize. They would rather risk 
eternal war to themselves and the people 
than risk losing the chance of grabbing a 
lucrative portion for a few days on earth. 
This is what is the trouble. Human nature 
is so perverse and mercenary that it does 
not want to abolish the insignia and possi- 
bility of war. And so from one-seventh to 
one-tenth of what the people produce by 
hard toil is wasted either in killing each 
other, or getting ready to kill each other. 
As a race, what we ought to do is to 
change all this by turning right round and 
work exactly the other way. That is, let 
the people spend from one-seventh to one- 
tenth of what they earn to save each other, 
or in preparing to save each other. Sup- 
posing such a revolution as this were to 
take place to-morrow, how long do you 
suppose it would take to make this world 
almost a Heaven ? There would be union 
without disruption. There would be con- 
cord without clashing. There would be 
peace on every side, and prosperity for 
every person. This time is coming — God 
has predestinated it to come. We can see 
it coming on the wings of the logic of 
events, as well as on the wings of the pro- 
phecies of the prophets. It is our busi- 
ness to help it on. To do so we need to 
follow the text. The failing spring is in 
the words of man ; the unfailing spring is 
in the word of God. We need the unfailing. 
" Man's unhappiness (says Thomas Carlyle) 
in ( Sartor re Sartus ) comes from his great- 
ness. It is because there is an Infinite in 



him which, with all his cunning, he cannot 
quite bring under the finite." We need to 
give the Infinite free scope when consider- 
ing the perpetuation of national and human 
union. When the Infinite is seen to be 
supreme, all flourishes. When the finite 
is treated as supreme, all fades. God will 
have His way among nations, as well as 
among persons. The nations and persons 
who practically and properly recognize 
this are, and ought to be preserved. The 
nations and persons who will not so recog- 
nize this are, and ought to be destroyed. 
Our psalm text says it is " good and plea- 
sant for brethren to dwell together in 
unity." The quantity that brings and 
keeps that unity is loving brotherhood, 
kind and comely sisterhood : an altruistic, 
and not an egotistic humanity. Love is 
the greatest thing on earth, because it is 
the soul that binds in beautiful coherence 
human beings to each other. As gravity 
gathers the globes, and makes them move in 
mutually helpful unison, so love gathers and 
groups men and women, and moves them 
in mutual and helpful harmony. There- 
fore, love should have full control among 
the children of men. With this in view, 
we should put forth our best endeavors to 
"keep the unity of the spirit in the bond 
of peace." The spirit here referred to is 
the spirit of loving kindness. This spirit 
of kindness should prevail everywhere — in 
the person, in the home, in the school, in 
the business, in the press, in the pulpit, in 
the pews, in social intercourse, in prosper- 
ity, in adversity, amid all changies, and in 
all callings. That this spirit is progressing 
among mankind it is most cheering to 
observe. The people are much more 
patient and careful, and thoughtful than 
they were fifty years ago. A glorious 



368 



PRESERVING THE UNION. 



transformation is deeply, steadily, silently 
going on in the hearts of many millions 
of our race. People are beginning to feel 
and see that love is better than hate ; that 
kindness is better than harshness ; that 
patience is better than petulance ; that 
meekness is better than arrogance, and 
that kind consideration is better than 
haughty condemnation. But whilst it is 
inspiring to notice this change for the bet- 
ter, we cannot but see there is much pro- 
gress in this direction yet to be attained. 
There are certain forces that will enable 
us to go on in the good way as a nation 
and as individuals. And, remember, we 
must go on as individuals else we cannot 
go on as a nation. It is the individuals 
that compose the nation. Make them 
good, and you make the nation good. The 
result will be all right, if the persons con- 
stituting that result are right. If, then, we 
would do our share in our day to make 
this Republic what it ought to be, let us 
all keep up 

1. A union of love. Let Jove rule the 
camp, and rule the grove. Let love fill 
the rich, and flood the poor. Let love 
guide the teacher, and direct the taught. 
Let love pervade the employer, and 
employed. Let love leaven industrialism 
in all its multiplex forms, and capitalism in 
all its investments, and. there will soon be 
no need of militarism. Let love be the 
inspiring impulse of the people, and there 
will soon be no need for police. Let love 
be the nectar the people shall drink, and 
there will be no need of the saloon. Let 
love become the persuasive and all-control- 
ling power of society from top to bottom, 
and there will be no need of soldiers, nor 
of war, nor of jails, nor of hangmen, nor 
of electrocutionists. This one element is 
strong and good enough to cure all ills, 
because "God is love," and where it lives 
He reigns. But you say, " How are we 
to cultivate, How are we to secure this 
love ?" 

2. Endeavor after a union of endeavor. 
Show people the superiority of this new 
way. Get people to join the love crusade. 



Ask them, instruct them, influence them 
in every way to become endeavorers in 
this high sense. Lead members of your 
churches, of your families, of your guilds, 
of your societies, of your various trades, to 
combine. Men are combining in insur- 
ance, in trusts, in orders of one kind and 
another. You can rarely find a respect- 
able man in these times who does not 
belong to some sort of a society. Your 
business is to induce them to connect 
themselves with the Supreme Eternal 
Society. You have right, and truth, and 
good, and God, and all the reasons on 
your side. Let us preach up a grand cru- 
sade to get people away from trust in 
impermanent societies to trust in, and 
unite with The Permanent Society. Man 
is eternal, and he needs some one eternal 
to take care of him. 

3. To bring this about, work for a 
union of spirit. Where spirit rules, mat- 
ter follows. Where the spirit reigns, com- 
binations of matter ensue. Material things 
are weak. Spiritual things are mighty. 
But the union of The Spirit must be main- 
tained. There are many spirits, but there 
is only One Spirit. He must have full 
control. He must have right of way. He 
is in the world, and ever working. There 
are many fires, but there is only one Sun. 
If you will have His blessed light, you 
must let the Sim shine in. That Sun shines 
for all. This Spirit works for all. Let 
all work with him, and there will be unity 
of spirit among men, and this will keep 
the bond of peace. He will bind in tender 
ties heart to heart, community to com- 
munity, country to country, man to man, 
and all to God. 

4. Labor not only for a union of love 
and endeavor and spirit, but also for a union 
of faith. The beliefs of people are diver- 
gent. These divergent faiths dissever 
even good people from each other. They 
keep people apart. Separation makes them 
suspicious. Suspicion breeds distrust. 
Distrust nourishes schisms, slanders, and 
excommunications. There are many reli- 
gious denominations. There is no denom- 



PRESERVING THE UNION. 



369 



ination in which you will not find sincere, 
honest people. But we are weak before 
our enemies, because we are divided. If the 
good people of all the churches could only 
agree to combine and co-operate in the 
great fundamentals of their faith, human 
affairs would be far better. If we would 
quit being Baptists, and Methodists^ and 
Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, and 
Roman Catholics, and become Christians, 
then we would be able to maintain " the 
unity of the spirit " in the bond of peace. 
But instead of combining to help each 
other Heavenward, we have combined 
to drag each other downward to disputa- 
tion and division. It is a wonder we are 
not worse off than we are. The States of 
this country have had sagacity enough to 
see that in their union there is strength, 
and so we are united under one civil con- 
stitution, in which we politically believe. 
It is this gives dignity and grandeur to 
the Republic. It is this gives strength, 
safety, and solidity to the nation. If we 
have been sharp enough to see this nation- 
ally, why are we not sharp enough to see 
it religiously ? Must the children of this 
world eternally remain wiser in their 
generation than the children of light ? 
Let us lay aside our narrow bigotries and 
fanaticisms, and come up like men on the 
broad platform of God's general govern- 
ment, and there stand for each other and 
the world. 

5. But I despair of this ever coming to 
pass until we know each other better, and 
so I plead for a union of knowledge. Let 
there be light on all the denominations. 
No church that is doing right has anything to 
conceal. If you see a church that is always 
hiding its methods, and afraid of the light, 
that is not the Church of God. That is 
the church of evil. " He that doeth evil 
hateth the light," said Jesus, " but he that 
doeth truth cometh to the light that his 
deeds may be made manifest that they are 
wrought in God." There is nothing going 
on in this church that I am afraid to let 
everybody know about. We are doing 
everything for the best interests of the 



people, and we do not care who knows it. 
And it is the same with every honest 
church. And the world has no need for 
any other kind of church. If we are all 
sincere, and pure, and true, why cannot we 
put our sincerity, and purity, and truth- 
fulness together, and make a mountain of 
holiness that the world can rely on. The 
world, in its ever-aching heart, is looking 
for such a mountain, and whenever the 
churches unite and frame it, it shall be so 
high and attractive that it " shall be ex- 
alted above the hills, and ail nations shall 
now unto it." 

6. But the only power that can bring 
about this union of love, of endeavor, of 
spirit, of faith, of knowledge, is the growth 
up to the knowledge of the Son of God 
Himself. This knowledge of Him must be 
so clean and clear that it will lift us to 
perfection of manhood, even to the meas- 
ure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. 
This is one of the many places where Paul 
wrestles with language to express the 
majesty and meaning of his thought. The 
Greek words strain under the infinite 
weight he tries to put into them. When 
St. Paul spoke of man's glory in the Divin- 
ity of Christ, he always struggled for words 
because he had something so great to say 
that no words could be made to express it. 
We are in the same condition with Paul 
still. There has been great progress in 
language since his day ; but the " measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ " 
still remains unutterable. He is our per- 
fect standard of manhood. When you 
want to see how small you are, bring your- 
selves up beside Him, and look at Him, 
and then look at yourselves. But this is 
what you do not like to do, and yet this is 
what you most need to do. You say, 
" How am I to place myself beside Him, 
and draw the contrast between Him and 
me ?" The mirror of the Gospel is before 
you. Look in this and see. 

I was called to marry a couple one time, 
and she was very short, and he was very 
tall. There was a glass in the parlor, and 
as soon as she came in she said, " Oh 



370 PBESJEB VING THE UNION. 



mercy, don't let us stand before that glass." 
After the ceremony, social converse 
ensued, and I was curious to know why 
she objected to the glass, for she was a 
coy, pretty little creature. And she said, 
with an air of naive archness that little 
ladies sometimes assume, " Oh, he's so big, 
and I'm so little ! ! ! " And so, friends, 
it is with Christ's bride, the Church. I 
fear she does not like to look into the mir- 
ror of the word with the view of growing 
up to Him. Christ as seen through the 
mirror of His Sermon on the Mount, is too 
high for her. Christ as seen through the 
mirror of going about doing good to har- 
lots, and lepers, and sinners generally is 
too broad for her. Christ as seen spend- 
ing whole nights in prayer, casting out 
devils, controlling the whole universe, is 
too big for her, and the frightened little 
creature turns and says, practically, 
on many, many occasions, " Oh mercy 
don't let me look into that glass." 
But, my hearers, this is the glass you need 
most of all to look into. If you dudes and 
nice dressy folks of fashion would only 
spend as much time looking through the 
Gospels at your Savior as you do in look- 
ing through the mirrors at yourselves, 
what powers for the good of this world 
you soon would be. You would see so 
many perfections in Jesus that you would 
fly to Him. You would discover so many 
beauties in Jesus that you would stay with 
Him. You would secure so many vitaliz- 
ing, and nourishing, and strengthening 
forces from Jesus that you would grow up 
to Him, and so attain to perfect manhood, 
according to the " measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ." There are many 
measures of manhood among the children 
of men. The pugilist measures manhood 
by the strength, speed, and skill with 
which he can strike an antagonist. The 
miser measures manhood by the amount 
of money he can grab and keep. The 
pleasure-seeker measures manhood by the 
number and exquisiteness of the sensuous 
pleasures he can indulge in. The intel- 
leetualist measures manhood by the num- 



ber of difficult problems he can solve. But 
the true man measures manhood by the 
amount of nearness he can attain to the 
" measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ." This is the kind of manhood our 
nation needs to-day — manhood great in 
moral girth, great in virtuous height, great 
in ethical depth, great in Christ-like grand- 
eur. The whole nation, and the whole 
world unwittingly sighs for such manhood 
as this in its statesmen, in its lawyers, in 
its physicians, in its merchants, in its man- 
ufacturers, in its tradesmen, in its teachers, 
in its preachers, in its people. 

Oh for such a strength as this, 

As through the world we go; 
Then merging ever into bliss, 

All sin we'll overthrow. 

Christ will lead us safely through 

The toils and cares of time, 
And give us such a Heavenly view 

As maketh life sublime. 

Blessed Master, us employ 

And make us live like Thee ; 
And lead us forward to the joy 

Of Thine eternity. 

A large majority of such men and women 
is the best guarantee of the perpetuation 
of this Republic through all time — great, 
good human beings who live for a union of 
love, a union of endeavor, a union of spirit, 
a union of faith, a union of knowledge, a union 
of perfect manhood, according to the " measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christy With 
such conserving unions in this country, we 
could sing more hopefully with Long- 
fellow, — 

" Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State, 
Sail on, O Union strong and great ; 
Humanity, with all its fears, 
With all its hopes, and future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate." 

Or with George P. Morris, — 

" The union of lakes, the union of lands, 
The union of states none can sever; 
The union of hearts, the union of hands, 
And the flag of our union forever." 

As a Union preserving Christian 

" Be just, and fear not. Let all thy ends 
Thou aimest at be thy Country's, thy God's 

and Truth's ; then if thou fallest, 
Thou fallest a blessed martyr." Amen. 



Anti- Christ 



"Even now have there arisen many Anti-Christs." — I.John ii : 18 (R. V.). 



DURING my ministry in this city I 
have been frequently met with 
carping criticism, and unbelief on 
the part of those whom I have been seek- 
ing to save. After investigating fully, I 
discovered the man who is the source of this 
shallow folly. I went to his study and in- 
terviewed him, and found that he had infi- 
delity enough in him to corrupt a nation. 
I told him there and then, I would attack 
him if he did not give up his destructive 
teaching. I gave him the " Saengerfest 
Sermons," and received from him some 
pamphlets and papers — still further ex- 
planatory of his doctrines. Not wishing 
to break the peace, I thought long and 
prayed much for divine direction. The 
more I prayed and thought, the stronger 
the voice within me cried, arise and smite 
the enemy, " Be not afraid, neither be dis- 
mayed, for I, the Lord thy God, am with 
thee." Accordingly, I had to speak out 
or be faithless to my conscience, and my 
commission. This I dare not be ; and so 
I stood up here on seven warm Sunday 
evenings, before crowded audiences, and 
cried out against " dangerous and destruc- 
tive doctrines." The Doctor answered in 
an open letter. But I do not propose 
to let this man escape in that way. 
He appears like a wild boar of the wil- 
derness, here in this garden of the Lord, 
rooting up the precious plants of a 
century's cultivation, and scattering the 
arrows of death to such an extent as, if 
uninterrupted, would turn this prosperous 
city into utter dessolation in a few gen- 



erations. I therefore propose to follow 
him up and demonstrate how he is doing 
this, and also how we may not only neu- 
tralize his vicious blasphemies, but also 
turn them into permanent blessings. I 
appreciate to the full that I am under- 
taking no ordinary task, and that there- 
fore I shall need your prayers, sympathy 
and co-operation, and, above all, the pow- 
erful Light, Love and Liberty of Almighty 
God. 

And now, to begin : The trenchant in- 
strument with which this man thrashes 
the Church is known by the pompous 
name of " The Higher Criticism" This 
is an arrogated name by which certain 
egotistical and puffed-up critics have 
designated that species of negative, and 
destructive criticism of the word of God 
in which they are accustomed to indulge. 
It is a lofty, fine-sounding title, such as 
pomposity and vanity would lead a super- 
cilious egotist to adopt, to strengthen a 
worthless cause. 

Think of it ! What are its prime 
questions ? When was the book written ? 
Who wrote it? What caused it to be 
written? What is the character of the 
writing? Is it false or true ? These are 
the leading questions of higher criticism. 
They are important questions. They are 
questions we should be able intelligently 
to answer. But there are other ques- 
tions, the Bible answers, that, practically 
and personally speaking, are far more im- 
portant than these. Such as: Who is 
God? What is man? What is sin? 



372 



ANT I- CHRIST. 



Who is the Saviour ? Does he save me ? 
What is my duty? Where is power? 
What is destiny? Am I ready for it? 
These are questions that come far closer 
to human life, and sweep it far higher 
than those of the "Higher Criticism/' so 
called. The "Higher Criticism" is, in 
reality, the lower, because a man can be 
magnificently saved without being able to 
answer a question in its vocabulary. But, 
though he may be able to respond to every 
question of the "Higher Criticism," as 
such responses go, he cannot be saved at 
all, unless he can personally answer the 
practical questions of personal faith in 
Christ, and love to man, and obedience 
to God. These are the only questions 
that are vital. These are, therefore, 
the highest questions, and leave afar 
beneath them, in importance, those of the 
" Higher Criticism." These are the ques- 
tions a soul asks when in distress, and to 
which it must secure an experimental an- 
swer or perish. But the mere " Higher 
Critics," falsely so called, have no satis- 
fying answer for such a soul. They are 
like unto a company of men who went 
into a pharmacy. A poor fellow was 
brought into this same medicine shop in a 
dying state. He drew out of his pocket a 
prescription from his physician, and pre- 
sented it, pleadingly, to the prescription 
department. These men noticed it, and 
went up and took the prescription out 
of the druggist's hand, and commenced 
criticising and questioning, thus : " Who 
wrote that ? " " When was it writ- 
ten ? " " Why was it written ? " " What 
did the author mean to teach?" "Is it 
fiction, history, poetry or philosophy?" 
"Are his ideas true or false?" "Are 
his principles right or wrong ? " And 



so they bandy words and opinions. One 
says, " Dr. P wrote it." Another says, 
"No, it was Dr. Q." And another says, 
" It is in Dr. K's handwriting." And a 
fourth claims, "No, it was written on the 
other side of town." A fifth claims it 
was not written in town at all ; a sixth 
says it was written by two different per- 
sons ; and a seventh claims it was written 
two months ago," and an eighth, it was 
written only two weeks ago. And while 
they are carping and criticising about 
these things, of no practical importance 
to the person concerned, lo ! the poor 
man, for want of the healing medicine, 
falls dead at their feet ; and they button 
up their coats and say : "Ah ! he must 
have been very far gone before he camejn 
here. 7 ' But they never think of charging 
themselves with the murder of that poor 
man. These are the self-elated, wonderful 
scholars, but still more wonderful humbugs, 
that style themselves "Higher Critics." 
They are a species of intellectual dudes, 
that human beings can get along very well 
without. I have read all the "Higher 
Critics " that amount to anything as 
authors, but this man, in bold affrontery 
and pompous effervescence, exceeds them 
all. 

Let us see how he proceeds. He claims 
that until recently men did not dare criti- 
cise the Bible. Poor creature ! Where 
is his knowledge of history? Surely, 
such a wonderful man as he ought to 
know that the Bible has been in the fires 
of criticism ever since it was born — in 
every age and in every land, by gnostics 
and agnostics, by atheists and deists, by 
rationalists and skeptics, by Mohamme- 
dans, Zoroasterans, Buddhists and Brah- 
mans, by Greeks, Romans, Scythians and 



ANT I- CHRIST. 



373 



Scandinavians. This Bible has been crit- 
icised from the first Yom of Genesis to the 
last Sigma of Kevelation. And, glorious 
to relate, the more it is criticised the more 
it shines. It is like pure gold-plate ; the 
more it is scoured the more it glistens with 
glory. A man said to me, " Would it not 
be better to let that man alone ? You 
bring him so prominently before the 
public that thousands hear of his de- 
structive doctrines now who never would 
have known even his name." I re- 
plied to him, " They hear of his false 
doctrines. I propose to take these false 
doctrines and grind them into emery, to 
burnish up the grand old Bible." And 
that is just what, by God's help and your 
prayers, I will do. If the Bible does not 
come forth out of this contest a brighter 
and more beautiful book than ever, I will 
let any one of you hang my head on 
a pole as an encouragement to destruc- 
tive critics. The next pivotal remark 
he makes is, "Xo vital problem was 
touched," referring to the conduct of the 
exegetes and commentators. My friends, 
if it were not for the grave interests 
involved, I should blush to bring be- 
fore such a mass of intelligent and appre- 
ciative people as you a blatant and palpa- 
ble falsehood like this. Xo vital problem 
was touched ? Aye ! Then Savonarola, 
as he towered in his splendid eloquence in 
the " San Marco," revealing the glory of 
the scriptures to Italy, " touched no vital 
problem." And Luther, as he caught 
hold of the mighty volume, and, wielding 
it like a scimeter from heaven and brought 
out of its pages such life from God as 
revolutionized Europe and overthrew the 
papacy, "touched no vital problem." And 
Wesley, as he rose above the ruins of an 



ungodly age, opened its pages, and by the 
penetrating power of his most erudite and 
logical mind pierced the vitals of books, 
chapters and verses all through this book 
until they, exuding, bled with the healing 
elixir of heaven all over England and 
America, "'touched no vital problem." 
And the quarter of a million of minis- 
ters of the Protestant churches who open 
weekly all over the world its living truths 
to millions upon millions of the human 
family, moulding their lives, vitalizing 
their characters, harmonizing and en- 
livening their faculties, "touch no vital 
problem." Ah, it is just the vital pro- 
blems they do touch, and not the effete 
and threadbare, worn-out guesses of much 
that is passing now-a-days for "Higher 
Criticism." 

HIS LINGUISTIC BLUNDER ABOUT LATIN. 

I received a letter the other day, say- 
ing, " We thinking people of this age 
want facts, and not suppositions." And 
that is what I say ; let us have 
facts. We must have the facts before 
we can have the forces. This is ex- 
actly what the foe professes to give, but 
does not give. Bread he promises, but a 
stone he yields. He and his admirers 
make a great parade of his learning, and 
yet, when he comes to say anything that 
requires even moderate scholarship, he 
slips up like a slovenly schoolboy. I will 
only take time to give one instance. It is 
found in his second sermon on the 
" Higher Criticism." In speaking of the 
Bible, he says, " It was not thought of as 
one book prior to the Fourteenth Century. 
In Latin it was not Ton Bilion but To Biblia, 
the books." Xow, the fact is, these words 
are not Latin at all, but Greek, and the 



374 



ANTI- CHRIST. 



bungling way in which it is expressed in- 
dicates ignorance of grammatical construc- 
tion. How comes it that this wonderful 
scholar is capable of making such blun- 
ders as an ordinary schoolboy would be 
ashamed of? And yet this is only a 
sample of the loose habit of his mind. 
Look at the way he proceeds to lay 
down his premises in bis first sermon. 
He begins by saying. "'Xow suppose.'* 
etc.. and continues with •• and let us sup- 
pose.*" And the whole fabric, with a few 
exceptions, of that bewildering discourse is 
woven out of suppositions and arbitrary as- 
sumptions and audacious guess-work, aided 
by misconception and spiritual stupidity, 
till it finally culminates in the false asser- 
tion that '■ It is very doubtful if David ever 
wrote one of the Psalms.'' ZSow where 
has this Arch Anti-Christ obtained all 
this literary trash ? The answer is 
easy. From the very worst wing of the 
German Infidels, commonly, but errone- 
ously called Eationalists. From the Bob 
Ingersols of Germany, and. indeed, ap- 
parently from Bob himself, this man has 
loaded himself up with these abominable 
falsehoods, and is discharging them be- 
neath the nostrils of men and women who 
ought to be Christians. Does it take 
a thinker to do this? Xo true thinker 
could be guilty of such absolute folly. 
Does it require a scholar to do this ? A 
blatant and blasphemous Xeopkite could 
do all that he is doing, if you only give 
him the books to collate from. Does it 
demand a Christian to perform such hor- 
rible service ? A true Christian would 
shrink from it as from the yawning of an 
earthquake. Xo ! Any one who handles 
the word of God in the manner this man 
handles it. is an antagonist of Christ, and, 



therefore, of Christianity. It is a shock- 
ing burlesque and shameful travesty to 
have the phrase, " Church of the Ee- 
deeiner," graven on the edifice in which 
such a man airs his infidelity. The fla- 
grant pretense is righteously scorned by 
every sensible and zealous Christian who 
understands it. Why should that church 
call itself Christian, when it is known 
that its pastor seeks, by ribaldry, to ruin 
every cherished principle of Christianity? 
Recently it has been cleansing and decor- 
ating the exterior and interior of its 
building. I pray that this may only be 
symbolic of the transformation that the 
grace of God soon may make in the pastor's 
heart and mind. If not. then better, in- 
finitely better, for Christianity and for 
this city that this society shall strike 
down its false colors and sail under the 
flag of open infidelity. For, as an enemy 
can do much more damage inside the cita- 
del, so a fallen church can accomplish 
much more evil by continuing the pre- 
tense of Christianity. 

DIRECTNESS OF AIM XECESSARY WHEX YOU 
GO GUXXIXG. 

You probably wonder why I am so di- 
rect and personal : and some of yon may 
even imagine me abusive. Well, I cannot 
help that. When a man goes to blow up 
a rocky obstruction in the channel, he has 
to bore the rock before he puts the dyna- 
mite in. When a man finds a burglar in 
his house, he does not shoot all round the 
premises, but at the burglar. If pirates 
seek to rob a ship, the defenders do not 
shoot all over the sea but at the pirates. 
Of course. I am well aware that I am de- 
parting from the old hackneyed, half- 
apologetic methods of time-serving pul- 



ANT I- CHRIST. 



375 



piteers, who seem afraid to say a word or 
do a thing that will excite opposition or 
criticism. I am here in this pulpit, and 
if any man, or men, wish to see me pri- 
vately on an affair of honor, my address 
is known. The obvious purpose of the 
enemy is not constructive, but destructive ; 
and the object of the attack is the most 
precious heritage of humanity. It is no 
less a treasure than this most precious 
chart, given by God to guide us all from 
sin to sanctity — from misery to happi- 
ness — from hell to heaven. 

IT WOULD BE LIKE SWEEPING THE SUN 
OUT OF THE HEAVENS. 

The destruction of the Bible would be 
the sweeping out of the sun from our 
moral, civil and spiritual firmament. If 
the enemy had his way, he would bring it 
down from the lofty place it occupies as a 
Divine Book and make it a fragmental, 
mythical, human book. Instead of being 
a history of God's governmental and re- 
demptive dealings with mankind, it would 
be reduced to a record of myths, fictitions 
and imposture. Instead of being the in- 
fallible teacher sent by the Almighty to 
the straying sons of men, he would make 
it a fallible monstrosity, that has been de- 
ceiving and misleading the nations. In- 
stead of being the beautiful mirror in 
which is reflected the love, life, will and 
nature of our Creator, Preserver and Ke- 
deemer, he would make it a heap of lit- 
erary rubbish, piled up for sinister pur- 
poses by unknown impostors at different 
dates during the ages. Instead of longer 
being the lovely moulding guide of youth, 
the encouraging and mighty stay of ma- 
ture strength, and the comforting and 
cheering star sustaining old age, illumin- 



ing even the grave with the splendor of 
immortal hope, and flooding the vast un- 
known beyond it with the radiance of 
peaceful splendor, it would be an unauthor- 
itative, demolished idol, looked upon as a 
childish fetish, with not half the worthi- 
ness of a Homer, a Virgil, a Cicero or a 
Shakespeare. Ah, brethren, it makes my 
blood surge and boil from the crown of my 
head to the sole of my feet to think that 
within a few yards of us we have a man, 
standing as a teacher, who could be 
guilty of such sacriligious, irreverent and 
profane attempt. Pray mightily — pray 
that God may show him his nefarious 
crime against the throne of heaven, 
against the Church at large, against the 
rising youth of this city, against the ma- 
turing virtues of your homes, your wives, 
your children and your hearts. Alas ! 
brothers, whither should we go for light, 
for hope, for pardon, for purity, for power, 
for prosperity, for heaven or for God, 
were this blessed Bible brought down 
from its lovely throne, and trampled in the 
mud by the mirky feet of haughty unbe- 
lievers, blatant sceptics, irreverent ration- 
alists and half-educated, but wholly self- 
conceited critics. 

IT IS LIKE TEARING THE HOME DOWN 
OVER OUR HEADS. 

There was once a lovely family, residing 
sweetly in their own home in a beauteous 
sylvan dell. The father of that family 
had reared a classic structure, adorned 
with the richest tracery and filled with 
the finest treasures. Sweetly did they 
live, symphoniously did they sing, and 
safely were they screened from famine 
and the rough tempests of the wilderness. 
It was an Arcadian scene, far surpassing 



376 



ANTI-CHBIST. 



that of the the poetic pen of even Longfel- 
low. But in the height of their hope, and 
their innocence and joy, lo ! a mounted 
brigand appeared, leading his masked 
men to the charge. With vicious 
sword hack and merciless battle-axe, 
this brigand defaced the elegant tracery 
and tried to beat down the classic 
architraves and groined entablatures, and 
then, rushing in, cried, " Get out ! we 
will take your treasures ; we will demolish 
your palace. It is not properly built. It 
was not truly constructed. Get out ! ! 
Fly to the wilderness ! ! ! " Just then a son 
of that family, inured to war, arose and 
said: "Brigand, spare this home; flee 
from these premises ; abandon this pur- 
pose of spoliation and destruction; for, 
by the help of the Eternal God, who built 
this happy home for us, not another 
stone, nor pedestal, nor plinth shall fall to 
the ground." 

This is our position in regard to the 
Bible. It has been, it is, our civil, sweet, 
moral, spiritual, intellectual, home. The 
brigand has appeared to take its protect- 
ing roof from over our heads; but, by the 
help of Almighty God, who has given us 
this most precious structure, not a single 
slate shall be removed, nor pinnacle de- 
faced, nor treasure looted. My dear 
hearers, this discourse is what we may 
call an opening of the battle. It is in- 
tended to present reasons for going into 
this conflict. Some of you may inquire 
why I apply the term Arch Anti-Christ to 
the enemy. Because it here fits the case. 
Arch means chief, and Anti means against, 
and the whole rendering reads, Chief An- 
tagonist against Christ. There are many 
Anti-Christs. Every unbeliever is an 
Anti-Christ, because " he that is not for 



Christ is against him ! " What, then, 
is the fitting term for the man that 
makes most unbelievers, but chief antag- 
onist of Christ ? kSin makes unbelievers, 
because men want not to believe, in order 
that they may, without repentance, com- 
mit their sins. The saloon makes unbe- 
lievers, because men want not to believe, 
so that they may indulge in drinking. 
The house of death makes unbelievers, 
because men want to be unrestrained in 
the indulgence of their evil passions. Bad 
politics make unbelievers, because men 
want to be free to jump wherever their 
sordid and secular interests prompt them. 
Dishonesty makes unbelievers, because 
some people want to be untrammeled, to 
take advantage of one another. Theatre- 
going makes unbelievers, because some 
people want to see the spectacular and 
hear the dramatic, however debasing and 
ensnaring, without restraint of the 
churches. A badly balanced mind and su- 
perficial education make unbelievers, be- 
cause, through these defects, sometimes 
persons have so weak intellects and so vol- 
atile wills as to be indisposed to grasp and 
hold the great truths of Christianity. 
Thus the forces that make unbelievers are 
many and mighty ; but the mightiest 
force on this earth, next to Satan him- 
self, to manufacture unbelievers is the 
man who, with a reputation for knowl- 
edge and wisdom, stands in the pulpit, in 
the name of God and Christ, and sows 
broad-cast by powerful oratory, and also 
the potent agency of the press, the seeds 
of error and unbelief. A man like that can 
do more to pollute the hearts and cor- 
rupt the minds of a population like this 
with the insane root of unbelief than all 
the saloons and dives in the community. 



ANTI- CHRIST. 



377 



I say the insane root of unbelief, for it is 
insanity, and the most dangerous, in- 
sidious and fatal kind of insanity. And 
why ? Because, "As a man thinketh so 
is he." Or, in other words, as a man be- 
lieveth, so he will feel, think and act. If 
his belief is false, his feelings, thoughts, 
words and acts will be false. Belief, 
therefore, is the fountain of character and 
the root force of destiny. This may give 
you an inkling of how I feel in the pres- 
ence of a living oracle whose professional 
business appears to be to sow the seeds of 
unbelief, misbelief and disbelief about 
almost everything that all these Protest- 
ant and Catholic churches in this city 
should hold dearer to themselves than 
life itself. Some people say, " Oh, dear, 
don't touch the snake, or you will frighten 
all the children ! " 

KILL THE COBRA AT ONCE. 

There was a man once in India and he 
had a garden of lovely flowers and mellow 
fruits, and a great snake appeared in their 
midst rearing his head aloft. He told the 
neighbors about it, and they said, oh, you 
must not touch that snake, for he is a 
sacred creature. "Very well," said the 
Hindoo, "we'll let the serpent alone 
then." Ah, but the serpent did not long 
remain alone, for a Mrs. Cobra De Capello 
soon appeared also, and then there came 
a brood of young cobras, and pretty soon 
the garden was so infested with cobras 
that the Hindoo could not go into it, and 



his family could no longer live among the 
lovely flowers and pluck the juicy fruit. 
And not long after that these young cobras 
multiplied again, and crept over and under 
the garden wall and invaded the Hin- 
doo's house and stung his wife and slew 
his children with the virus of their poison- 
ous fangs. Woe and death came upon 
that family because they did not hunt 
down and kill the old cobra when he first 
appeared. He was the harbinger of a 
host of serpents that were born to him. 

The parable is surely plain. The time 
for action has come. The cobra of un- 
belief, of denial and destructive doubt, 
has appeared in our garden. Let us spare 
the man but kill the cobra. Let us slay 
the sin while we pity the sinner. Let us 
expose and capture and slay this highly 
venomous reptile of unbelief before he 
multiplies and slays our wives and our chil- 
dren. We have opened no broad sides of 
argument yet, we have not called up either 
the infantry, cavalry, or naval reserves 
to the charge. We propose a scientific, 
stately and orderly attack and a most de- 
cided and heroic onset. The troops are 
mustering in the mind. The cohorts are 
enfilading in the field of thought. And 
on next Lord's night, God willing, we 
shall begin our march forward by battal- 
ions in the systematic and all-conquering 
form of Echelons. On next Lord's night 
we shall commence at the beginning and 
repulse the murderous attack of the enemy 
on Moses. 



Moses* 



"And the Lord Spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." 

— Exodus xxxm : 11. 



WHEX, a short time ago., I was trac- 
ing the tracks of Moses in Egypt 
and Arabia, I was, unconsciously 
being prepared for the great work that 
lies before me to-night. For, as with 
eager eyes I studied on the banks of the 
Nile and amid the ruins of Memphis, 
Thebes and Goshen, as I traced the 
course of Moses past Ataka, through the 
Red Sea, and among the mountains of 
Arabia, across the desert of Etham, along 
by the walls of thunder Cloven Sinai, up 
by Kadesh Barnea, till finally my eyes 
rested on sacred JNebo, there were woven 
into my soul such burning convictions as 
shall flame here to-night for your illumina- 
tion. No man who has studied intelli- 
gently the archaeology of Egypt and the 
physiography of Arabia can ever after 
doubt the divinity of the mission of 
Moses, nor the regal grandeur of his noble 
life. It was in Egypt he spent forty 
years around the Egyptian throne and in 
the far famed temple of On. It was in 
Arabia he spent forty years in preparing 
for his lofty mission, and forty more in 
executing it. And it would be a welcome 
task to take y r ou by the hand and show 
you the testamentary evidences of the 
sculptured rocks to which the 

MOABITIC AND ROSETTA STONES ARE 
KEYS. 

It would be pleasant to lead you through 
" The Bulak," with its hieroglyphic mar- 
bles and its testifying mummies. It would 
be inspiring to disclose before you the 



lit hie speakers of Sakkara and of Thebes. 
All contribute to the fact that Moses 
wrote the pentateuch, and that God in- 
spired Moses. This, God sparing us, I 
promise you to do at proper time, and in 
fitting way, when we can, through stere- 
*opticon, on week night, flash the light of 
science upon the exhumations of Egyptic 
archaeologists and the discoveries of Ara- 
bian travellers. I now propose to demon- 
strate, by words, upon the tablets of your 
own best common sense, that God spoke 
to Moses and that Moses speaks to us. 
People of such spiritual sagacity^ as you, 
are not dependent upon testimonies exca- 
vated from the sand dunes of Egyptian 
ages. Thanks be unto God, many, if not 
most of you, can sing, 

"What we have felt and seen 
With confidence we tell; 
And publish to the sons of men, 
The signs unfallible." 

I therefore confidently trust to your 
common and spiritual sense to perceive 
the demonstration. I shall seek to show 
the truth of our text, and when that is 
fully seen, all the sophistries of the enemy 
must fall to the ground. To be plain and 
honest the great object of the enemy is to 
disprove supernatural agency among the 
children of men. His purpose is to show 
that God never spoke to Moses or to any 
other man " face to face as a man speak- 
eth unto his friend." His prime design 
is to banish the idea of God's interference 
in the affairs of men except through 



380 



MOSES. 



natural law. In other words, his pur- 
pose is to show that evolution is the 
source of all, and that God, if there be a 
God, cares but little for his human sons. 
To be still plainer, the enemy has under- 
taken to exclude God from his favorite 
domain and from his most prized family. 
The mere mention of this fact is with all 
spiritually sagacious people its refutation ; 
but there are only a few who are spirit- 
ually bright, and so those who are spirit- 
ually stupid (and this is the majority), 
are likely to be entrapped and slain by the 
foe. Of course such purposive effort is 
inhuman and undivine, and in the end 
will be abortive and terribly avenged by 
that God who governs this world with 
equity. Nevertheless our business is to 

SAVE AS MANY AS POSSIBLE 

from the ravages of every Anti-Christ who 
may, as prophesied, from time to time 
appear in this world. Having thus pre- 
mised let us now work up to the argu- 
ment, sustaining the text, " The Lord 
spake to Moses face ' to face as a man 
speaketh unto his friend." No man living- 
can go back thirty-five hundred years and 
see Jehovah talking to Moses thus. The 
enemy and we are on equal footing here. 
We can see just as far and clearly into 
the past as he. We have access to the 
same books and use of the same discrimi- 
nation in using them ; but the great differ- 
ence between the enemy and a man who 
will not lie is, that he can go right back 
there thirty-five hundred years and tell 
better what was going on in those times 
than the people who lived in those days. 
He can even go farther and contradict 
most of what they have certified. He can 
aver that instead of Moses being learned 



in all the lore of the Egyptians, he 
was nothing but " an unlettered slave." 
I do not profess to be able to go back 
and live in the year 1500 before Christ, 
and know more about Moses than Moses 
knew about himself, I take the mirror 
of reason and the §tars of facts as 
reflected in that mirror before coming 
to conclusions. Let us use reason first 
and then facts. In other words, look at 
the probabilities in the case and then at 
the certainties. 

1. It is probable a Being like God 
would create such a being as man. He 
created the glorious moon, the salutary 
sun, the beautiful stars, the billions of 
amazing worlds. He set them swinging 
through azure space with such precision, 
power and skill that even astronomers are 
bewildered by their number, accuracy, 
magnitude, promptitude, velocity and 
orderly array. God made the flowers, 
the forests and the grassy sward. He 
made the fish that swim the sea, the birds 
that beat the air, the wild beasts of the 
jungle and the cattle of a thousand hills. 
But none of these mighty or minute 
creations could appreciate their Creator's 
works or ways, none of them could rise to 
reciprocal union and communion with 
their creative and preserving Lord. A 
new being must be made who could 
think, admire adore ; a being who could 
willingly, through various stages of pro- 
gression, rise to reverence, obedience and 
love — a being in whom Jehovah could 
take reciprocal delight and with whom 
He could in companionship commune. 
That being was the last and greatest. 
That being was man. 

2. It is probable (having made his 
favorite creature in the " image of 



MOSES. 



381 



Himself") He would give such moral 
and spiritual child direct revelation by- 
words as well as works. Being a good 
and gracious Father it is unthinkable 
that he would leave his children without 
some verbal revelation of his thought and 
care. There are imperfect parents here 
to-night, but there is not one of us so 
imperfect as to refuse our children the 
benefit of our riper thought and richer 
love. Is there a father here who never 
has spoken to his children his feelings 
and his thoughts ? Is there a father here 
who has built a house and surrounded it 
with beauties and filled it with treasures 
and said, now let my children learn of me 
only by these things ? If there is such a 
father let him stand and we shall look 
with more than wonder. Now, if we 
being evil, know how to reveal ourselves 
to our children by words as well as works, 
how much more must he who is good have 
revealed himself by utterance to some of 
his children for the benefit of the rest. 

3. It is probable that such a Father as 
Jehovah would in his wisdom select the 
most trustworthy to be the custodians of 
his uttered love and will, and also to be 
the conveyancers of it to the others. If 
you were going to a far country and you 
were going to leave directions expressive 
of your interest in and affection for your 
family you would certainly have a choice 
as to the member of that family with 
whom you would deposit those loving, all- 
important directions. If your family were 
large, amounting to several score, you 
would not leave your will with the scape- 
graces, but with the save graces of the 
flock ; and can you suppose our Divine 
Father would be less wise than you ? The 
children of Israel were not as good per- 



haps as many of you. They had not your 
opportunities, but they were the best 
people of their times, and Moses was the 
best of them. The reasoning then is pre- 
sumptive in favor of Moses. 

4. It is probable that God the Father 
of this great human family would begin 
early to make himself known to his child- 
ren. In such matters we have to reason 
from the known toward the unknown. 
Now we know that human fathers are 
not backward in this regard. I have 
seen them invade the very birth chamber, 
and as soon as the little darling could 
open its infant eyes, say, " Hello, baby, 
I'm your papa ! " And then they looked 
with strangely fond parental air, as much 
as to say, I wonder if the little fellow 
really knows I am his father. All the 
way up through infantile months' and 
boyish years I have noticed they are 
careful to enforce in many ways the fact 
upon their children's minds. We have 
been made in the divine image in this, 
as in many other respects. And this 
gives the key to unlock the door of pro- 
bability in regard to how Jehovah has 
most likely treated his infants in the 
cradle of the human race. It is, 
therefore, highly probable that our 
Heavenly Father began very early to 
speak to his human children. The record 
is that he spake to Adam and Eve and 
treated them with tenderest care till they 
disobeyed ; that he followed up their 
progeny and spake to Cain and Abel, to 
Noah and Abraham and Jacob. The pro- 
bability is that their divine utterances 
were well remembered and were com- 
mitted to hieroglyphics as soon as practi- 
cable. They would be likely kept as 
sacred treasures, through all changes and 



382 



MOSES. 



all times. And it is therefore highly 
probable that when Moses made the five 
books ascribed to him that he drew largely 
upon the records of the past for the Book 
of Genesis. The other books of Exodus, 
Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers it 
was as easy for him to write as Caesar his 
Commentaries or Xenophon his Anabasis. 
He is the leading figure in the events re- 
corded in these four books, and it is 
therefore probable that he knew a little 
more about these events than any who 
live now thirty-five hundred years after- 
wards. And the fact that to the book of 
Deuteronomy is appended a description of 
the departure of Moses in a manner of 
which no man knew, no more invalidates 
his authorship than does an account of 
the death of Wesley appended to his 
sermons weaken the probability of his 
authorship of his sermons. Here, then, 
we have four probabilities. 

1. That such a being as God would be 
likely to create such a creature as man. 

2. That He would give such a being 
as man a direct revelation of Himself by 
words as well as works. 

3. Tii at He would select the most 
competent and trustworthy of His human 
children as custodians of such revelation. 

4. That He would begin early to re- 
veal Himself to His human children 
according as they were able to appre- 
ciate and utilize such spoken disclosures. 

These are four probabilities which, 
after careful consideration, no intelligent 
and well-disposed person can afford to 
repudiate. They are so highly probable 
that in the nature of things they are next 
to certainties. 

There are probabilities of this class. 
That the sun shall rise to-morrow is a 



probability — so sure that it is looked upon 
as a certainty, and yet in the nature of 
things it is, and never can be, anything 
but a probability. Still it is a probability 
almost as sure as a certainty. In other 
words, there are some events that must 
in reasoning come only under the head of 
probable evidence. Yet these events may 
have all the practical force of certain 
evidence. The farmer sows on only pro- 
bable evidence, etc. To this class of 
evidence belong the few presumptive 
points which I have just presented in 
proof of the veracity of the Mosaic 
Pentateuch. But now we do not need to 
rest satisfied with even this highly pre- 
sumptive evidence, because we can take 
a step forward, cross the Rubicon of pro- 
bability, and enter the Italy of certainty. 

1. It is certain man has been on this earth 
for several thousand years. This is 
scientific. The cave remains. The sepul- 
chral chambers,, the excavated cities of 
Egypt, of Asia Minor and of Mesopotamia 
demonstrate this by the exhumed mum- 
mies and tablets that have been found. 
The exact length of time man has been on 
this planet, the Bible, and no other book, 
conclusively demonstrates. But the five 
Books of Moses, and the exhumations of 
remote antiquity, tally about as well as 
we could expect lithic and literary testi- 
monies to do, coming out of so distant 
ages. Both agree in giving man an exist- 
ence of at least about six thousand years. 

2. The next certainty is that man has 
always been capable of knowing quite a 
number of things more than the beasts 
beneath him. I have seen probably the 
most natural and least advanced speci- 
mens of human beings on the earth. I 
refer to the Aborigines, or "Black 



M0SE8. 



383 



Fellows,' 5 as they are called, of Australia. 
But I found them capable of canoeing, of 
throwing the boomerang with skill and of 
creating fire by friction. So that, judging 
by these and kindred specimens of primi- 
tive man, it is scientific to conclude that 
man, since his creation, has had ability to 
know a few things more than either the 
fowls of the air or the beasts of the forest, 
and this is the second step in the demon- 
stration I propose to make. 

3. It is certain that some of the things 
man early learned have been handed 
down, partly by tradition and partly by 
written or sculptured story, through suc- 
ceeding generations. For in man himself 
is an inherent propensity to transmit, and 
the results of this propensity are in all 
ancient nations found in one form or 
other. And in connection with this we 
may scientifically say that the more 
startling and unusual the event the 
stronger would be the propensity to trans- 
mit it. And that, therefore, if God ever 
condescended to speak to man such an 
amazing event would be surely trans- 
mitted, and would be conserved and 
guarded with the most sacred and jealous 
care. This forms the third step in my 
demonstration. 

4. It is certain that men who lived 
when these word revelations were made 
by the Creator knew more about to whom 
they were made and who transmitted 
them than men who lived a thousand 
years thereafter, and these would naturally 
know more than those who lived two 
thousand years thereafter, and so on, for 
it is scientific to say that events, as well 
as things, grow older and more complicate 
and hazy with the lapse of time. The fact 
that Tennyson wrote "In Memoriam," 



and the " Charge of the Light Brigade " is 
now very clear to us ; but three thousand 
years from now it will be very misty to 
the people then living. Therefore, it is 
scientific to say that the men who lived 
thirty-five hundred years ago knew more 
about the literature of that day than we 
do now. That is, they knew more about 
who wrote it, when it was written, who 
inspired it and what was the purpose for 
which it was written. I may say in 
passing that if any man says there was no 
literature so long ago his testimony is at 
variance with the archives of Archaeology. 
This is my fourth step in the demon- 
stration. 

5. It is certain Moses was the great leg- 
islative transcriber of those early times. 
Certain, I say, for a nation of three million 
compacted tribes has so testified. Why 
does no one doubt that Sir Walter Scott 
and Edmund Burke and Lord Bacon were 
great writers in their day? Because a 
nation of several millions stands ready to 
offer its attestation. And so long as Eng- 
lishmen are on the face of the earth in 
large numbers, no critic can reasonably 
doubt that these men wrote the bulk of 
the books ascribed to them. We have a 
people, scattered all over this globe, who 
were so minute and mighty in literature 
that they kept a genealogical record. 
And, no matter in what zone of the world 
you meet a Hebrew, he is an infallible be- 
liever in Moses as the author of the Pen- 
tateuch. Aye, too, and men who are not 
Jews in the Oriental lands have unbroken 
and unbounded confidence in Moses. 
When I was in Shechem, I entered the 
Samaritan temple there. The priest, 
with great awe, conducted me to the in- 
terior, and there, opening possibly the 



384 



MOSES. 



oldest scroll in the world, displayed the 
old Hebrew characters, written with great 
care, but without vowel points. There it 
lay in its rich encasement, enfolded with 
the most scrupulous care, the most precious 
thing in Palestine, whilst, with bated 
breath, the Samaritan said, "Torah 
Moseh" — the law of Moses. I found also 
the Arabs of Arabia, the Mohammedans 
of Syria, equally strong in faith in Moses 
as the great law-giver, given to the world 
by God. This forms my fifth step to- 
ward the demonstration. 

6. It is certain that the works of Moses 
thus and otherwise transmitted have 
proved the most beneficent of all tran- 
scriptions. The Egyptians found their 
laws in the "Book of the Dead." The 
Persians theirs in the conflicting Zend. 
The Grecians theirs in Solon and Lycur- 
gus. The Romans theirs in Capito and 
Labeo. The Teutons theirs in the olden 
Sagas. The Brahmans theirs in the Veda. 
The Buddhists theirs in the Dhamnia- 
pada. The Chinese theirs in the " Three 
Kings." The Japanese theirs in the Ko- 
jiki. But most of these, if, indeed, not 
all, have borrowed their best from Moses. 
And it is a most astounding fact that, in 
proportion as the law of Moses is prac- 
ticed among men, the more prosperous 
and powerful they become. Why should 
this be, if his books are not divine ? As 
the sun of the sky, in co-operation with 
the soil and sea, produces the richest 
fruits of the earth, so the books of Moses, 
in co-operation with the other sacred 
Scriptures, produce the most glorious har- 
vest of humanity. Much most valuable 
legislative authority and divine force 
must be lost to the State, to the Church, 
to humanity at large, therefore, by mur- 



dering Moses. None so powerful, and so 
intimately associated with the Deity, can 
be found to take his place among the sons 
of men. Here I challenge human history 
and human development to produce an- 
other Moses. There have been many 
founders of great religions and vast legis- 
lative systems, but I challenge the human 
race to show me another Moses. Zoroas- 
ter, Gautama, Confucious, Laotze, Moham- 
med and others were founders of great re-' 
ligions and legislative systems, but, as 
every reai investigator knows, these are 
like mere glimmering stars wandering in 
a hazy wake of abyss mal darkness com- 
pared with the splendor of the noonday 
sun, when compared with Moses. Present 
conditions, as well as past history, prove 
that such resplendence could not come to 
any man, and especially to so primitive a 
man, save through supernatural converse. 
No such conceptions of creation or Cre- 
ator ; no such ideas of jurisprudence and 
of law ; no such prophecies of men or of 
man's Eedeemer, as are found in Moses 
have anywhere in ancient time been possi- 
ble to other sages. And the great fact 
that the works of Moses form a vast, 
varied and fitting foundation for the 
mighty superstructure of Christianity 
reared upon them, affirms, with an exact- 
ness that is most admirable, that the 
foundation of Moses was planned and 
prepared by the same Infinite Architect 
who, gradually throughout the ages, has 
reared and rears upon it the crowning 
structure of Christianity. The two are 
not f ragmental ; they are one. They are 

NOT A PATCHED COMPOSITE OF MAN'S 
DEVICE. 

They are an organic unity, and bear the 
same relation to each other that founda- 



MOSES. 



385 



tion does to palace, root to tree, rail to 
steam engine, or keel to ship. Nothing 
but spiritual stupidity prevents men from 
seeing this great fact — a fact which, 
when seen, sways the conscience, com- 
mands the reason, subdues the will and 
captivates the life. This is the sixth 
link in the chain of a complete and scien- 
tific demonstration. 

7. The seventh certainty is that, since 
nature never could have given Moses the 
prescience to produce such a work as tne 
Pentateuch, and since Satan would not if 
he could, his authority for it must have 
been God. who u spake to him face to face, 
as a man speak eth unto his friend." This, 
then, was the origin of the Pentateuch. 
This is what makes it most precious to 
and authoritative with us. This is what 
gives it undying vitality. This is why 
it permeates Eoman, English, American, 
and even Oriental law ; and this is why 
defence of it shall be victorious. The 
word of God, like the works of God, 
can never be vanquished. Try to van- 
quish the law of gravitation by mount- 
ing to the top of a lofty cliff and fly- 
ing off. A crow might do this without 
fatal results, but it would be no fun 
to you. Try to vanquish the ocean by 
forbidding its ebb or flow, and see what 
a baby you make of yourself. No great 
work of God can be vanquished. But 
the word of God is even more invinci- 
ble than his works, for it is mightier. 
" The worlds were framed by the word of 
God." The word of God is, therefore, su- 
perior to the mightiest natural forces. 
But, as we have seen, the words of Moses 
are the word of God ; therefore, it is mad- 
ness to attempt to deny or pooh ! pooh ! 
it aside. It would be easier .to ridicule 



reason, guess and speculate the sun out 
of the sky. And this forms the seventh 
step in the argument. 

Here, then, in addition to four high 
probabilities, amounting almost to the ex- 
actness of a problem in geometry, we have 
seven certainties that cannot be over- 
thrown, namely : 

That it is certain man has been on 
the earth, at least, about six thousand 
years. 

That it is certain man has always been 
capable of knowing and transmitting the 
news of the age in which he has lived. 

That it is certain the most impressive 
things man early learned from God were 
communicated from sire to son, from age 
to age. 

That it is certain men who lived when 
these divine communications were made, 
knew more about who received and trans- 
mitted them than it is possible for men 
now to know. 

That it is certain, from the universal 
testimony of those men and times / that 
Moses was made the custodian of a 
special revelation by word direct from 
Jehovah. 

That it is certain the Pentateuch of 
Moses bears the stamp of the Divinity 
upon it, because of its transcending bene- 
ficial effects upon the whole human race. 

That it is certain the Pentateuch, as the 
great foundation factor, fits exactly (as a 
piece of nice machinery) into all we since 
have learned of God, into all we yet have 
learned of man, and into the entire struc- 
ture of the Holy Scripture. And my con- 
clusion is, that these are scientific facts, 
and that 



386 



MOSES. 



WELDED 1XT0 OXE BATTALION 

of truth, have vitality enough to sweep all 
mere speculations, guesses and assump- 
tions of the enemy into oblivion forever. 
And that is what I do with them here and 
now. In the name of the eternal God, 
and in the name of eternal truth, and in 
the interests of the people of this city, I 
command the insane, cruel and blasphe- 
mous butchery of Moses to cease. I repel 
and trample under foot every assault 
made upon him. With the boughs of this 
venerable Mosaic tree hanging over us, I 
say to the destructionist hewing away 
there with the axe he has whetted on the 
Devil's grindstone : 

"Woodman, spare that tree, 
Touch not a single bough ; 
In youth it sheltered me, 
And I'll protect it now." 

And, if he does not desist, I'll shoot. 

i'll shoot him with gospel grape-shot 

till he is dead. I see that others are, in a 
sly way, throwing sculptured bricks and 
stones at the enemy. Well, when I was a 
boy I used to throw stones at crows when 
they voraciously attacked the stooks of 
my father's corn ; but when I grew up a 
little, I gave them shot, with a good charge 
of gun-powder behind it, from the old 
family rifle. They did not care about the 
stones much ; they would get up and fly 
away to some other part of the field. But 
when the grand old gun was brought out, 
that was a different matter; they knew it, 
and left the field altogether, just as Froth- 
ingham did, just as Felix Adler did, and 
just as this man will do unless he repeuts 
and believes in Moses, and in Jesus, 



and in the Gospel of God. I would love, 
above all things, to see him do this. God 
bless him and have mercy on him ; I 
would give my right hand to see that man 
soundly converted to God. 

Now, having seen Moses rescued from 
the rubbish by the power of incontroverti- 
ble facts, re-seated on his legislative 
throne, there are a few practical facts we 
shall need to work out, in order to keep 
ourselves right. 

THERE NEED BE NO FEAR FOR MOSES. 

And I am not preaching these sermons 
because I have any apprehension on his 
account. Jesus ratified him by quoting 
from him, and by appearing in the splen- 
dors of transfiguration with him. Men 
might as reasonably try to hurl the earth 
from its orbit as to heave Moses from 
Mount Sinai. He is the great Penta- 
teuchal figure, aud shall remain so for- 
ever. God has established him, and he 
cannot be disestablished. I, therefore, do 
not preach this sermon for the sake of 
Moses, but for the sake of this great congre- 
gation ; for the sake of these dear young 
men that throng these galleries ; for the 
sake of these young ladies that crowd 
these pews; for the sake of this multitude 
of parents who have children to train for 
time and eternity; for the sake of the in- 
quiring, unsettled and unsaved seething 
masses of this city. It is for your sakes, 
my fellow pilgrims, floating on the wings 
of time rapidly toward eternity. 

IT IS FOR YOUR SAKES 

I preach this and every other sermon. It 
is to your interest to be guided by Moses, 
because Moses will guide you to Jesus. 
He is the great legislator who leads us to 



3fOSES. 



387 



Christ. If there were no Moses in our 
creed, there could be no Jesus in our 
faith. If there were no divine law, there 
could be no divine Saviour. But there is 
divine law, and that law is the law of 
Moses. That law prepares us for the 
Saviour, and that Saviour prepares us for 
heaven. They are complements of the 
one grand system. "The law was given 
by Moses." This is one side. "But grace 
and truth came by Jesus Christ." That 
is the other. The law has been given to 
instruct. The Saviour has been given to 
redeem. The two, working together, are 



the hope and heaven of the human race. 
When we measure ourselves by the law, 
we see our sins. When we see our sins, 
we apply for salvation. Practically, Sinai 
is as important to us as Calvary. 

" When on Sinai's top I see 
God descend in majesty 
To proclaim His holy law, 
All my spirit sinks with awe." 

* # * * * 

"When on Calvary I rest, 
God in flesh made manifest, 
Shines in my Redeemer's face — 
Full of beauty, truth and grace." 



The Symbols 



"Which are the Figures of the True." — Hebrews ix : 24. 



THE human race was in its infancy 
when these symbols were first 
given. It is not improbable some of 
them were communicated from Adam 
down. It is likely that Abel, Noah, 
and many others, were favored with 
them. There are evidences that the 
ten great religions of the world in their 
initial stages had something of them. The 
oneness of the Godhead was the root germ 
of all the systems which are now known 
as polytheistic and pantheistic. The proof 
of this would involve an analysis too 
excursive for our present purpose. We 
are forced to confine ourselves to that one 
preparatory system, known as the Mono- 
theistic. This was the Hebrew system. 
This was the system through which 
Messiah was to come. It was therefore 
guarded with special care. 

It was blessed from its great progenitor, 
onward with theophanies (outshinings) 
of the God. His glory (Kibor) appeared 
to Abram. The Jehovah (not the Elohim) 
commanded him to leave his father's 
house, and promised to bless him and 
make him a blessing. Abram believed 
and obeyed. Jehovah kept his promise, 
as he always did, and does. He -was 
Abram's shield, comforter, "exceeding 
great reward." The symbol of his pres- 
ence, like a " smoking furnace and a 
burning lamp," appeared between the 
pieces of Abram's sacrifice. He made a 
covenant with him. He promised to 
multiply his children as the stars, and to 
give them the land of Canaan as a herit- 



age. He changed his name from Abram 
to Abraham, indicative that He. would 
make him the father of many nations. 
How marvellously now, after nearly four 
thousand years, this promise has been 
fulfilled. Abraham is the father of all 
believing nations. These promises were 
all made by symbols, for no man could 
look upon the essence of the Deity and 
live. As seed needs burial from the 
splendor of the sun till it roots and grows, 
so we have to be screened from the ex- 
ceeding brilliance of Jehovah, till by 
growth we graduate into another life. 
Hence the need of type pattern figure, 
especially for us in childhood. You have 
but to reflect to see the import and im- 
portance of these figures of " The True." 
In childish years we used figures of 
greater things to come. If we had not, 
we never could have risen to accomplished 
life. Our parents knew this, and they 
taught us by figures and symbols the 
way to a larger and a truer life. We had 
to learn the letters (symbols) of written 
language before we could learn the langu- 
age. We had to be Alphabetarians before 
we became Grammarians. And the same 
was true in regard to everything else. 
We had to begin with the simplest ele- 
ments, and by their proper combinations 
advance to the most complicate and im- 
portant problems. The " Differential 
Calculus " introduces us to the most 
majestic demonstrations. This is a law 
of nature, and therefore a law of God. 
Elemental symbols appear at the porch of 



390 



THE SYMBOLS. 



every class-room of God's great univer- 
sity. He who will enter must first learn 
the symbols. He who will proceed must 
use the prefiguring models. If not, he 
will misunderstand the things prefigured, 
and so cannot advance. He will be turned 
back by the invisible, but inflexible, hands 
of inexorable law. Many men wonder 
why they do not succeed in their callings. 
The solution is in unmastered elements 
which are the keys to power. 

Keep this principle steadily in mind, as 
we apply it to the infantile period of the 
chosen people who were to give the Saviour 
to the world. As we have seen, that 
period began with Abraham, and con- 
tinued through the trying training of 
Egyptian bondage. As soon as they 
issued, however, from the womb of afflic- 
tion, and like babes, began to look around 
them, the Great Parent who had them in 
charge began to teach them by " Figures of 
the True." And those figures were as 
closely related to that " True " as num- 
bers are to arithmetic, or axioms to 
Geometry. They were the first lessons of 
the Great School the children of Israel 
were to open for the world. Accordingly 
it was fitting they should be favored with 
symbols that would prefigure and intro- 
duce the grander things to come. 

I shall portray to you a few of these 
figures ; show you how they have been 
assailed and repulse the assault. Having 
seen in our last sermon that " the Lord 
spake to Moses face to face as a man 
speaketh unto his friend," and that what 
the Lord said unto Moses, Moses said to 
us, we are therefore as rational and scien- 
tific beings, bound to accept his descrip- 
tions of the symbols as final and infallible. 
This we do with the most unhesitating 



confidence and courage. Confidence, be - 
cause the descriptions of Moses are con- 
firmed by the highest and most sifting 
science. Courage, because the Jehovah of 
Moses is with us, and "the God of Jacob is 
our refuge." The first symbol we invite 
you to survey is that guiding column — 
now cloud, then flame. See it there in its 
supernatural splendor moving before the 
camp, leading the chosen host out of the 
glades of Goshen, along past Pi-hahiroth, 
Migdol and Baal-Zephon, till at nightfall 
it conducts the chosen children to the sea.. 
The foe is in hot pursuit, with chariots, 
horsemen and all accoutrements of war ; 
but lo ! that cloud swings round and 
separates pursuing and pursued. A hor- 
rible darkness, grinr as death to the 
enemy, but a light, bright and beautiful to 
the emancipated nation. Guided by that 
symbolic light, Moses stretches toward 
the sea his hand now nerved with the 
might of the delivering God, and back 
roll the waves to right and left, till they 
stand on either side like frozen liquid 
walls. On in between march the rescued 
host and reach the Arabian shore. On 
after them speed the pursuers, with their 
horses and chariots of war. But under 
divine command, Moses, standing on the 
Arabian strand, stretched out his hand 
once more and the cloven billows closed 
and covered Pharaoh and his host, so that 
" there remained not so much as one of 
them.", 

When in Egypt, I resolved to see if 
this remarkable drama could be proved. 
I studied the lines of kingly mummies in 
" The Bulak Museum " day after day, in 
quest of Pharaoh of the Exodus. I found 
mummies there of many a dynasty, even 
that of Eamses II. of the nineteenth 



THE SYMBOLS. 



391 



Dynasty, the Pharaoh of the oppression ; 
but where was 

POOR MINEPTAH OF THE EXODE ? 

My guides I questioned ; my books I 
read; mine eyes I used till weary; but 
nowhere could I, or any other, find trace 
of him. Nor was this wonderful, for, in- 
stead of in the enswathing bands of em- 
balment, his body (tallying precisely 
with the Scripture record), had been en- 
gulfed in the whelming waves of the 
avenging waters. Christian comrades, 
what scientific evidence is here of the 
supernatural grandeur of this heraldic 
symbol. There, in the skies of sacred 
story, it shines, and shall forever, shine. 
Upon each lambent flame, I see luminous 
letters burning to illuminate the ages of 
the earth ; when properly deciphered thus 
they read : " Jehovah darkness and de- 
feat to his enemies ; but light and victory 
to his friends." My hearers, the enemies 
are pursuing you. Bewildered by worldli- 
ness and bedizzened by splendors excel- 
ling those of the Egyptians, they would 
make you serfs of their doubts and slaves 
of their heresies. In the name of the 
Jehovah of infant Israel I appear for 
your deliverance. Under divine appoint- 
ment in my station, as fully as Moses was 
in his, I am sent to lead you out of the 
land of bondage, through the Eed Sea of 
repentance, toward the land of pure de- 
light, the lovely land of Heaven. As 
Moses placed the children of Israel under 
the guiding symbol ; let me do even a 
greater work for you, let me place you 
under the guiding, unseen Saviour leading 
on his people as of old. 



" When Israel, of the Lord beloved, 
Out from the land of bondage came, 

Her fathers' God before her moved, 
An awful guide, in smoke and flame. 

" ~By day, along the astonished lands 

The cloudy pillar glided slow ; 
By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands 

Returned the fiery column's glow. 

" Thus present still, though now unseen, 
When brightly shines the prosperous day, 

Be thoughts of thee a cloudy screen, 
To temper the deceitful ray. 

" And O, when gathers on our path, 
In shade and storm, the frequent night, 

Be thou, long-suffering, slow to wrath, 
A burning and a shining light." 

Having given this impressive symbol 
of his authority over both nature and 
nations, the next "Figure of the True" 
Jehovah gave his chosen children whom 
he designed should flower forth into 
Christianity, was a transcript of his mind, 
and a figure of how that transcription 
should be used. I will not now lead you 
up among the thunderous and cloud-capped 
cliffs of Sinai to see the grandeur and hear 
the echoes of the speaking God (as this I 
have done on another occasion), but now 
invite you to come and see the second 
"Figure of the True," which is the Ark of 
God. There it is, most beautiful, made 
of the acacia of Arabia. It is oblong in 
shape, small in size, but charged with the 
concentrated power and care of Heaven. 
It was but twenty-seven inches broad and 
high, thirty-six inches long, but covered 
on every side with finest gold. A rim of 
golden filagree fringed the top, at its sides 
were golden rings, through which, for 
portable purposes, ran two golden-plated 
poles. The lid same size as Ark itself, 
and of the purest gold. Over it were the 
cherubim with volant wings and faces 



392 



THE SYMBOLS. 



toward each other turned ; both peering in 
wonder down upon the golden mercy seat. 
Over it, on the march, was spread a purple 
robe the gorgeous emblem of royalty, and 
around it grouped the Levites as body 
guards on the way to Canaan. Within 
it were the two tablets written with 
Jehovah's ringer, expressing Jehovah's 
mind ; also a pot of manna, sample of the 
desert food supernaturally supplied ; and 
Aaron's rod, that supernaturally bloomed. 
A pattern for the whole had been given on 
the Mount to Moses, and he was told to 
see that he made all according to that 
pattern with the cheering promise " And 
there I will meet with thee and I will 
commune with thee from above the mercy 
seat, from between the two cherubim 
which are upon the Ark of the testimony." 
Thus these chosen children, predestined 
founders of the Church of God, were 
furnished with their second symbol. To 
them in all their wanderings it was the 
talisman of triumph. It was before this 
talisman (after the spirit of Moses had 
been kissed from the crest of Nebo), the 
tawny waters of Jordan divided, to give 
free foot passage into Canaan. It was 
before this talisman the walls of Jericho 
collapsed, during the blowing of the ram's 
horns and the shouting of the people. It 
was before this strange but mighty symbol 
Dagan, the Philistinian god, fell down 
m his own temple and smashed himself to 
pieces. 

It was before this " Figure of the True" 
King David danced with more delight 
than over all his victories, as it was con- 
veyed from Kirgathjearim to Jerusalem. 
And it was this same sacred ensign formed 
the crowning glory of his son Solomon's 
most glorious temple. After performing 



its appointed functions as a symbol it dis- 
appeared from sight as mysteriously as 
Moses, its producer, after he had led the 
preparatory children to the verge of 
Canaan ; or as Jesus, its great Antitype, 
after his resurrection. It had accom- 
plished its design in the childhood of the 
church. It had preserved inviolate the 
Father's eternal law. 

It had kept the idea of the unity and 
supremacy of its Author from perishing 
amid the polytheistic sons of time. It had 

PREFIGURED THE COMING OF MAN ? S 
MESSIAH 

to establish a new, and larger, and a bet- 
ter covenant. It did its work, taught its 
lessons^ and, when no longer needed, 
passed away. But, though invisible, it is 
not forgotten. Though departed, its mem- 
ory remains — aye, remains — and to us is 
almost infinitely more than a memory. 
It is, and till time's end shall be, a vivid 
teacher of the truth of God. Its graven 
tablets tell us of the truths that should 
be written on the red-leaved volume of our 
hearts. 

Its hidden manna speaks to us of the 
bread we have to eat which the world 
knows not of. 

Its budding rod symbolizes to us afflic- 
tion, which, driving us to prayer, flushes 
forth, in the fullness of maturing time, 
with the flowers of promise and the fruits 
of grace. 

The third of the " Figures of the 
True " that has been assailed is one 
which is closely related to the Ark of the 
Covenant, the Tabernacle. Directions for 
the construction of this Tabernacle were 
also given by Jehovah unto Moses on the 
Mount, and, when finished, it was a thing 



THE SYMBOLS. 



393 



of great significance, beauty, fitness, 
glory. There, in the " Holy of Holies," 
the Ark, «' shrouded by the lovely veil, 
speaking forth the mystery and majesty 
of the Almighty. 

Here, in front of that veil, the golden 
table, with its shew bread, silently speak- 
ing of the works of benefaction to be ren- 
dered. There, on the left, the golden 
candelabrum, with its seven branches, 
quietly proclaiming the perfection of 
light, with which the Church should 
flood the world. 

Here, on the right, the altar of incense, 
sending forth its precious perfumes, be- 
speaking the adoration that would rise 
from a redeemed world to its Redeemer. 
There, in the outer court, and nearest to 
the Tabernacle door, the sacred Laver, 
foreshadowing human purity in better 
days to come. Here, a little distance from 
the Laver, toward the entrance to the outer 
court, the altar of Burnt Offering (fringed 
with its ledge on which stood the offici- 
ating priests), on which were offered the 
typic sacrifices forefiguring the great sac- 
rifice that God himself would make for man, 
in the presentation of his own, only and 
best Beloved. Thus stood the Tabernacle 
complete, a structure of deep and com- 
plete symbolism, shedding its suggestive 
foretokenings over the childhood mind and 
heart of the infant Church, raying forth 
hintings of the fullness to come in the 
ripeness of time. Even the colors of the 
drapery were symbolic; its blue spoke of 
the abyssmal freedom of the soul in the 
upper skies ; its purple, of the kingly 
glory of the King of kings ; its scarlet, of 
the crimson current that would give life 
and joy; its white, of the unsullied purity 
of hearts made soft as wool and white as 



snow. Even the position it occupied in 
the centre of the camp was significant. 
The scattered multitudes of Israel were 
re-assembled and grouped around it infixed 
order, according to tribal rank, the 
priests and Levites more closely than 
the rest, as body-guards of the illustrious 
treasure. On the east were Judah, Zebu- 
lun and Isaachar ; on the west, Ephraim, 
Manassah and Benjamin; on the north, 
Dan Asher and Xaphtali, and on the 
south, Eeuben, Simeon and Gad. In this 
order marched these children amid the 
mists of moral morning. As the Levites 
bore the sacred Tabernacle along, there 
hovered over it the screening cloud by 
day, which changed to a resplendent red 
by night. The whole army felt a provid- 
ing and protecting Presence, the whole 
infantile scene strangely and minutely 
prefiguring these maturer years when the 
"Only Begotten of the Father" dwells 
with His children fuller grown. Such 
was the Tabernacle of Jehovah, a richly 
and intricately constructed nomadic tent, 
gleaming from floor to roof with the 
" Figures of the True." Like the Ark, it 
performed its work of preserving the 
Monotheistic faith in the midst of the 
idolaters of the earth, and of prefiguring 
the great spiritual structure of Christi- 
anity, which is now so rapidly spreading 
its radiance round the world. After its 
work had been accomplished, it was su- 
perceded by the Temple of Solomon, 
which, after the same models, and in a 
more elaborate and stable way, continued 
the same most important service to hu- 
manity which the Tabernacle had begun. 
But whilst its materialistic forms have 
properly passed away, its cardinal princi- 



394 



THE SYMBOLS. 



pies remain. One state of the life of the 
Church is 

TO BE BUT A PREPARATION FOR A BETTER. 

And that, again, is to be the means of pre- 
paring for a still further stage. The law 
of life is from infancy to childhood, from 
childhood to full growth. This is the 
law of nature. This also is the law of 
grace. Natural law prevails in the spirit- 
ual world — rather, perhaps, the laws are 
one, and the different Realms evince but 
different operations of the same law. 
Therefore it was to be expected Jehovah 
would use such means as He has used in 
developing His infant Church. It was to 
be anticipated He would begin by simple 
sign and inviting symbol — by revealment 
of Himself in gentle cloud and silent 
flame; by a disclosure of Himself in rudi- 
mental and material figure. This is the 
way all true parents do when wishing to 
reveal themselves to their children. 
There is probably not a parent here who 
has not done, in a small way, what Jeho- 
vah has performed in a larger. What are 
your holiday gifts but mere tokens of the 
love that is within ? And you take this 
way, very properly, to reveal a little of 
this love, as your children are able to ap- 
preciate and use it. Now, suppose you 
see a father, thus thoughtful and 
loving, presenting tokens of affection to 
his children, tokens prophetic of a greater 
growth at a maturer age, and you find that 
father doing all he can, by sign, and sym- 
bol, and figure, and pattern to educate, and 
elevate, and inspire, and make his family 
magnanimous, loveable and grand, and 
a man, in his rude pomposity and pedantic 
self-conceit, secures a number of rich, but 



foolish, folks to pay him so much a year 
for standing up and 

SMASHING EVERY LOVE TOKEN 

and guiding symbol of that true pa- 
rent. What would you say of such ? 
You say that would be very bad for a 
man to do to nis fellow-man. But how 
shall I characterize the crime when we 
see a man passed through a Methodist 
seminary, and who occupied, in the West, 
a Methodist pulpit, go out and go down 
so far as to attack the love symbols, and 
tokens, and figures, and patterns that our 
Heavenly Father has given us to use in 
leading the childhood and the boyhood 
life of the people up to the best instruc- 
tions, inspirations, experiences and sta- 
tions ? By what name would you name 
that crime ? You would say that it is 
worse than lying, stealing or adultery. 
It is worse even than physical mur- 
der, for it is spiritual assassination It 
is the unpardonable sin. It is the sin 
against the "Holy One who inhabiteth 
eternity." It is more — it is the sin 
against the souls of the multitude, who are 
duped, and drugged, and dragged, through 
such fiendish instrumentalities, down de- 
clivities of doubt to destruction and ir- 
remediable despair. Ah, brothers, we 
have been silent too long ! Surely, surely, 
it is time to speak ! When a fellow- 
mortal skims the scum of the falsehoods 
of Thomas Paine, and the sneers of Ed- 
ward Gibbon, and the scoffs of Voltaire ; 
and the poisonous virus of Straus, Kenan, 
Graf, Kuenen, Baur and Wellhausen, and 
of every other furious heretic he can lay 
his hands on, and mixes the whole in the 
impervious porringer of his own misty 



THE SYMBOLS. 



395 



brain, and pours it out as delicious 
draughts to drink, surely, it is time to 
utter such protest as must be heard and 
heeded. Ah, but, you say, why does not 
the man see the havoc to faith, morals and 
manhood that must follow ? Because he 
is looking through the wrong instrument. 
He is taking a microscope, instead of a 
telescope, to see a star. He is looking 
through himself, instead of through Jesus. 
He is gazing through the opaque lenses of 
unbelief, swung on negativity and de- 
struction, and sees the scintillations of 
hell, and mistakes them for the stars of 
superior intellect, and tells you he has 
made a new discovery by Higher Criticism. 
This fancy, like the ignus fatuus, or the 
misleading mirage, lures him on. And so, 
losing the holy light, and inspired by 
sparks flying from the devil's anvil, he 
attacks the sacred symbols which moulded 
the infant Church of God — which illume 
the path of millions of youth to-day, in 
their march toward the Christ, and which 
should and shall stay, in all their 
venerable glory, to point the way to the 
slaughtered Lamb ! What should be done 
with the traitor to his country who would 
dare pull down the national ensigns of 
our land ? What should be done with the 
man who would riddle with shot and shell 
the Stars and Stripes ? General Dix 
would have said, (i Shoot him on the 
spot ; " and as a traitor to his country, 
the people would say, Amen. Ah ! but 
here is an enemy guilty of a far more fatal 
crime. He pulls down, he 

SHATTERS TO SHIVERS THE SACRED 
EMBLEMS 

♦of heaven. He says the first glorious sym- 
bol of majestic cloud and flame, marking 



out the march with, the well-meted intelli- 
gence and power of the Lord, was " a band 
of men walking in front and carrying but 
a flambeau, and the light of it by night, 
and the smoke of it by day, seemed to 
those superstitious people like the leading 
presence of their God." I wonder what 
they were doing with a flaming flambeau 
by day! Was not God's shining sun 
luminous enough ? Ah, such slush is ut- 
terly despicable. And then, see the poor, 
pitiable way he attacks the glorious Ark 
of the everlasting Covenant. 

"As they wandered up and down among 
the hills of Arabia, Moses found a sacred 
stone, or he was shrewd enough to pro- 
duce the likeness of one, and there was 
great rejoicing, and the people said, 
'Now, of a surety, the God of our fore- 
fathers is with us.'" "What was the 
Ark ? " he asks, and answers thus : "Abra- 
ham Kuenen says it was simply a box in 
which they carried the stone that Moses 
found or clipped out on some Arabian 
hill." A mere thing of imposture on the 
part of Moses, then. There was nothing 
supernatural about it. It signified nothing 
but the wild or crafty whim of an old as- 
tute Arab Sheik. Ah, sirs, what defile- 
ment; what desecration of earth's most 
sacred symbol given to man by Heaven is 
this ? But, vile, sacriligious, horrible as 
it is, it is not quite so horrible as his ele- 
phantine whopper about the Tabernacle. 
Here is his exclamation : "Alas ! higher 
criticism has reduced the Tabernacle to an 
unsubstantial dream." How shocking,* 
how horrifying for any sane man to make 
such a statement ! Sane, did I say? I 
withdraw the word, for none but a man 
weltering in the mire of mental and physi- 
ological insanity could utter such a state- 



396 



THE SYMBOLS. 



ment and call it higher criticism. He 
might as reasonably say the Parthenon at 
Athens, or the city of Palmyra, or the 
town of Tadmore never had an existence, 
except in dreams. Nay, much more rea- 
sonably ; for these existed but in stone. 
But this shone in gold and glory, graven 
upon the life, and customs, and habits, 
and hopes, and hearts of an entire mono- 
theistic and prefiguring nation. Politi- 
cians talk of mud slingers, but where, 
amid them all, can you find a mud slinger 
like this ? What he slings is worse than 
mud ; it is mud mixed with a poison that 
bites, and blisters, and bums, like vitriol, 
all human beings it is slung upon. This 
is why I have taken up this defense. It 
is to save you from eternal defacement 
and deformity. Let this poisonous stuff 
enter your minds and souls, and it will eat 
your spiritual beatitudes as with fire. 
There will be no escape. You will be 
walking, breathing corpses as soon as it 
secures any considerable influence over 
you. There was a man once appointed to 
take care of a beautiful and symbolic 
machine. He thought it would add to 
his fame and fortune to cover its lovely 
golden plate and finely adjusted parts 
with slime. He made a bucketful of 
this material once a week, and put a 
coating of it on the glorious machine each 
seventh day. It took him six days to 
make the infernal mixture. It was a 
species of muddy paste, well kneaded with 
strychnine, opium and arsenic. It had to 
be made as clammy as possible, so that it 
would adhere to the machine while in mo- 
tion. This he did week after week for 
years, so that he had 



COVERED THE LOVELY FABRIC SOME 
INCHES THICK 

by oft-repeated applications. At length 
the maker and owner of that glorious 
mechanism came and caught the man at 
the business. " Ho ! Ho ! What's this ? 
My choicest, my most expensive, my 
most valuable piece of mechanism you 
have begrimed with these poisonous pig- 
ments. I must deal with you as with all 
who reap what they have sown ! " And so 
the Lord of that magnificent and mighty 
structure, which he had set in motion for 
the welfare of all his creatures, called his 
servants and said unto them : " Take 
him and strip him, and melt this poison- 
ous stuff from my precious treasure ; put 
it on himself, coating after coating, so 
that it will remain. Then take him 
to the rim of my realm, and throw 
him off, and let him and others learn 
that ' Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap.' " This parable needs 
no interpretation. All it requires is ap- 
plication. How delightful it is to turn 
from these poisonous, pedantic puerilities 
of the foe to the real " Figures of the 
True." They are illustrated and enforced 
by the analogies of nature, science, his- 
tory, experience and the Word of God. 

Nature says : First the blade, then the 
ear, then the full corn in the ear. Science 
says: First the figure, then the com- 
bination, then the solution. History 
says : First the infant, then the boy, 
then the man. Experience says : First 
the symbol, then the revelation, then the 
salvation. Scripture says : First the guid- 
ing pillar, then the Ark of Covenant, then 
the Tabernacle of Testimony. 

Thus, true criticism is natural, scien- 
tific, historic, experimental and scriptural. 



THE SYMBOLS. 



397 



We believe in no Mephistopheles, who, 
like him in Goethe's Faust, is driven on 
by the whips of destructive negativities. 
We trust and respect no man who gives us 
arbitrary assumptions and unscientific 
twaddle, and asks us to accept them as 
revolutionary facts. Truth has a philo- 
sophical source, and can be proved by 
complete demonstration. Religion must 
be freely examined and intelligently ap- 
plied. " The natural man discerneth not 
the things of the spirit, neither can he 
know them, for they are spiritually dis- 
cerned." The first essential to see a 
spiritual truth is to have a psychological 
instrument that can see it. That psycho- 
logical instrument is experimental, spirit- 



ual realization. That realization comes 
through the utilization of the " Figures of 
the True " — Fire and Cloud, Law and Cov- 
enant, Sacrifice and Faith. When we sub- 
mit to guidance by these, we enter Truth's 
great temple ; we discern the things of the 
Spirit ; we behold the divinity of the 
Scriptures ; we perceive the might and 
mission of the Saviour ; we trust, we obey, 
we live, we a rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory; " and on next Lord's 
night, Providence permitting, we shall be 
able to get ever-expanding views of this 
most interesting and important theme, as 
we repulse the attack of Anti-Christ on 
Samuel. Amen. 



Samuel, the Seer 



11 Fitly joined together and compacted by that 

THE imagery here is of a house, an 
organism, or a science. The object 
to be portrayed is the system of 
human salvation by Christ. System, be- 
cause it is as harmonious, continuous, 
complete, as any cosmic organic process. 
" As the web and woof of matter and 
force interweaving, by slow degrees, 
without a broken thread, that veil which 
lies between us and the Infinite " are 
orderly and progressive ; so God inter- 
weaving a structure in the souls of men 
lifts them, by orderly advances, through 
that veil and associates them with Him- 
self. As God works in the natural realm 
through orderly procession known as 
evolution — as he maintains that proces- 
sion through " Survival of the fittest " by 
" natural selection," so he proceeds in the 
realm of redemption — it evolves, and will 
advance by the " Survival of the fittest," 
because that law is best adapted for the 
greatest work in its environment. The 
love marks and mind prints making 
nature impregnably complete appear in 
grace making redemption invincibly se- 
cure. All is inter-dependent, inter-active 
and eternally progressive. Its course is 
ever onward up the steep. It may here 
and there show retrogressions and tangled 
cords, but the march of the main body is 
ever forward. " Call me rather silent 
voices, forward to the starry track, glim- 
mering up the heights beyond me, on, 
and always on." It, therefore, is not 
fear of. the final issue on the whole that 
leads me 



which every joint supplieth." — Eph. iv : 16. 

TO INTERPOSE WHEN" A TRUTH SMASHER 
APPEARS. 

But because, in smashing the truth he 
may smash you, who must be saved by 
the truth if saved at all. Xo man should 
be permitted to go unchallenged, even in 
these times of free speech, who seeks to 
disjoint the well u compacted " system 
that alone can save. Xo man has a right 
to go through life preaching that seven 
and eight make sixteen. It would upset 
accuracy in arithmetic. No man has a 
right to stand up and teach the whole is 
not equal to all its parts. It would, if 
believed, ruin practical science. Xo man 
has a right to say that numerical equations 
have no root. It would spoil algebra. 
A man might as reasonably say we could 
have arithmetic without numerals, as to 
say there could be any spiritual system 
for men without inspired factors and 
actors. Mind works on mind ; spirit 
works on spirit as numbers on numbers. 

Suppose a man deny solution by quad- 
ratic equations and deny solution of 
questions that produce quadratic equa- 
tions. And deny the existence of equa- 
tions in general ; and deny logarithmic 
theorems ; and deny the utility of frac- 
tions in calculations ; and he has enough 
of dolts to believe him, he could over- 
throw not only the science of calculations, 
but all sciences that depend upon calcu- 
lations for demonstration. To come down 
closer to your common experience. Let 
one of these apostles of negativity come 
into a community like ours and denounce 



400 



SAMUEL, THE SEER. 



the uses of simple numbers of simple 
multiplication, division, reduction, com- 
pound division, simple proportion, com- 
pound proportion, the utility of fractions, 
decimals, tare' and tret, simple interest, 
compound interest, discount, profit and 
loss, etc. And suppose there were enough 
to believe him and support him, you 
would be in bankruptcy and disorder in- 
side of twelve months. Kidiculous and 
outrageous as this may seem from a 
business standpoint, it is no more out- 
rageous than the denial of the funda- 
mental virtues of men like Samuel from 
the inspirational and supernatural view 
point. Christianity among the children 
of men has demonstrated its utility 
spiritually, just as fully as arithmetic has 
demonstrated its usefulness commercially, 
and has, therefore, on account of its 
usefulness, as high a claim on protection 

FROM THE HANDS OF IMPOSTERS AND 
DESTRUCTIOXISTS. 

There is not a science on the earth of 
commercial nature that is not permeated 
with the principles of mathematics ; and 
there is not a civil, moral nor spiritual 
science but is just as fully permeated 
with the principles of Christianity. The 
chief difference is this — that spiritual 
science is incalculably more important 
than commercial and is not so easily 
penetrated by the mental forces, and so it 
comes to pass that moral and spiritual dul- 
lards are much more likely to multiply 
through the grossness of materialism. In 
other words, it is with the mind men con- 
ceive of commercial calculations through 
the use of mathematics ; but it is with 
the heart men conceive of spiritual reali- 
zations, and the heart (unrenewed) being 



" deceitful above all things and desper- 
ately wicked," men are much more prone 
to mis-calculate and mis-apply the funda- 
mentals of the spiritual realm. " Blessed 
are the pure in heart for they shall see 
God." The heart being the centre of 
man, God being the centre of nature, the 
finite centre in man alone is capable of 
finding the infinite centre in nature. No 
more can a blind man see colors, or a deaf 
man hear symphonies, than can a materi- 
alistic man see or hear the spiritualistic. 
Instrument must be adjusted to object — 
material instrument to material object, 

SPIRITUAL INSTRUMENT TO SPIRITUAL 
OBJECT. 

This is not arbitrary assertion, this is 
scientific and axiomatic. Experiment is 
the final proof of all. Men experience 
strength by physical eating, drinking and 
exercise, therefore . men believe in them. 
Men experience warmth by clothes wear- 
ing, therefore men believe in the custom. 
Men experience a voyage to Europe by 
the various trans-Atlantic lines, hence 
people believe in them. Men experience 
quickness of communication by using the 
telegraph, and so people use it. 

Men experience luminosity and propel- 
ling power by electricity ; hence it is com- 
ing to the front as one of the great and 
trusted servants of man. Millions of 
men, women and children experience par- 
don, cleansing peace and rapture by the 
compacted operations of the Bible system. 
The prophet Samuel is a part of that sys- 
tem. He is a necessary factor in the 
structure. And no man has any right to 
violate that factor any more than he has 
a right to violate an essential factor in 
algebra, or arithmetic, or geometry. The 



SAMUEL, THE SEER. 



401 



Bible contains the structure of Chris- 
tianity. All that has come after is de- 
pendent for efficiency on what has gone 
before. The sj~stem is a unit, and not a 
disjointed composite. Samuel stands in 
a most important period and did a most 
important work. His integrity and ability 
must be vindicated. He stands at one of 
the points of history and is fitly joined 
with what preceeds and follows. And 
glorious Samuel — what had he done, that 
he should be called "the old soothsayer, 7 ' 
" this miserable old enchanter," " a blear 
old ghost," " oiled with hypocrisy in every 
fibre ? " That's a pretty severe way of 
talking about a man who is not here to 
protect himself. These words never would 
have been uttered if Samuel had been liv- 
ing in our time, and especially if his friend 
David had been around. Now let us look 
at this same Samuel. Of all the men in 
history (with the exception of Joseph) 
he is least worthy of such defamation. 

WHEN I WAS IN SHILOH I SAT DOWN 
ALONE 

On the ruins which still mark the place. 
I could in the light of my Bible see the 
blessed little fellow there girded with his 
ephod and dressed in the " little coat his 
mother brought him year after year, 
when she came up with her husband to 
offer the yearly sacrifice," I could see Eli 
the venerable priest, blessing the holy 
mother for the sake of her darling child. 
With the long locks flowing over his 
shoulders the sacred boy grew up in this 
holy place as in Jehovah's house, minis- 
tering unto the Lord before Eli. Eli was 
the last of that line of strange celebrities 
who ruled Israel between Moses and 
Samuel. There was Joshua the heroic 



who captured and settled Canaan. There 
was Othniel the brave, who won a wife 
and fortune by one act of valor. There 
was Deborah the queen mother who led 
victoriously through Barak the hosts to 
battle. There was Gideon the grand, who 
overthrew the worship of Baal and swept 
with his famous 300 pitcher smashers and 
lamp wavers and heroic shouters the 
Midianites from Canaan. There was 
Jephtha the Trans-Jordanic chief, whose 
wild character drew him beneath his age 
as Gideon's brave but gentle spirit had 
lifted him above it. 

There was the shaggy, untamed, fro- 
licksome, grotesque, Samson, who played 
many useless pranks in Israel. But 
chivalry is not without its virtues, nor 
barbarism without its fascinations. Cul- 
ture and civilization have not had all the 
good of life, and Samuel secluded grew up 
in the midst of the wild fluctuations of 
his times. 

It is ever to be borne in mind that the 
Church of God has grown up to be what 
it is by a series of growths. The end of 
each growth is marked as by the rings of 
a palm, showing where one period ends 
and overlaps, and where another begins. 
Samuel is the last of the old judgeship 
time and the beginning of the kinghood 
period, and yet he w r as neither judge nor 
king, but rather an interblending of both 
— the nexus or the tie of transition in 
Israel ; a special man chosen for a special 
work. That work was one of develop- 
ment. God had appeared in pillar, and 
Ark, and Tabernacle, and now in 

THIS TRANSITION HIS PURPOSE W T AS TO 
ENTER MAN. 

It was a step forward in his great design 
toward the incarnation, Instead of looking 



402 



SAMUEL, THE SEER. 



so much through material symbol, hence- 
forth men were to be taught to look to 
man, who through those symbols had 
dreamed of God. Sin had reduced man 
to a most perverse, stupid condition. It 
was needful to begin very low down with 
him — indeed, in the materialistic ; hence 
cloud, Ark, cherubim, mercy seat, veil, 
shew bread, candelabrum, incense altar, 
laver and altar of burnt offering. These 
were God's object lessons, his alphabet, his 
primmer, his spelling books to the people 
he had chosen to convey the idea of the 
unity of his nature and of his greatness 
and goodness to ever expanding and ever 
ascending generations. If you will follow 
me in my line of thought throughout this 
and especially other sermons, you will see 
the beginning and the middle and the end 
of this great structure of Christianity. 
It has many gradations, many a layer 
upon layer of finished work, and as the 
middle and upper part of a building de- 
pend upon all beneath it, so the security 
of the Christianity of these times and 
after times depends upon the foundations 
as set forth in this Holy Book, and by 
Heaven's help, therefore, these founda- 
tions must be protected from every and 
all comers of whatever pretensions or 
powers. This gradual transition of the 
divine presence out of Ark and Tabernacle 
into man and and the great throes that 
were necessary to accomplish it are seen 
in the life of Samuel. We have seen his 
** youth, now glance at his manhood. The 
theocracy was transferred largely into 
him. The Jehovistic idea had grown 
during the judgeship so that God now 
appears as Jehovah of Hosts. 



SAMUEL WAS THE NEW MOSES WHO LED 
THE PEOPLE 

Forward in this great idea. It was he 
raised the loud piercing cry to God that 
gained the battle of Ebenezer, where was 
set up " the stone of help." And so great 
has that idea grown that millions sing 

" Here I'll raise mine Ebenezer, 
Hither by thy help I'm come, 

And I trust by thy good pleasure 
Safely to arrive at home." 

It was he who, like a Methodist bishop, 
travelled from Bethel to Gilgal and 
Mizpeh, judging Israel in all places, and 
after his itinerant circuit returned to 
Ramah, then the religious hearth of the 
nation. 

It was he who, like some of the grand 
old Methodist itinerants on the frontier 
" prayed all night unto the Lord," and to 
whom the people looked as unto an inter- 
cessor, saying, " cease not to cry unto the 
Lord for us." That prevailing shriek of 
supplication was always heard, and so 
much was he esteemed that no festive nor 
solemn scene was perfect till he came and 
asked a blessing. 

" The people will not eat until he come 
because he doth bless the sacrifice." 
Sam. ix : 13. 

Like Wesley in his later life, he moved 
among the hosts of Israel with his white, 
long Nazarite hair flowing down over 
his shoulders, moving all by the majesty 
and dignity of his appearance. Nor was 
he only an interblending of warrior, sage 
and judge — he was also Nabi (prophet). 
" He gave them judges until Samuel the 
prophet." Act iii : 20. " The word of 
the Lord was precious in those days ;" 



SAMUEL, THE SEER. 



403 



" there was no open vision." But the 
divine voice that had spoken in the 
Tabernacle at Shiloh still whispered its 
lessons in Samuel's ear. Augustine, in 
his De Civitate Dei, affirms he was the 
beginning of the prophetic dispensation. 
This confirms my expression that he was 
the mode of personal transit of Jehovah 
from the material tent to the human per- 
son. As herald of the prophets, he 
founded the prophetic schools, and the 
rythmic flow of modern feeling, thought 
and oratory, was by him begun. The 
young students, shepherds and aspirants 
all took shelter under the venerable shade 
of Samuel the Seer. Long before Plato 
grew magnetically philosophic in his grove 
of olives, 

OR ZEXO TAUGHT ATHENIANS IN THE 
PORTICO, 

the prophet, Samuel, had founded the 
world's initial University in Canaan. As 
mediator between the wild tribal rusticity 
and the new revolution toward monarchy, 
he stood in the breach between God and 
man, and between man and man. 

It was he who, after sleepless fasting, 
perplexity and prayer, listened to the 
popular clamor for a king, and although 
it cut off his own sons from office, poured 
the consecrating oil on the head of Saul, 
first king of Israel. It was he who. in 
large philanthrophy, "rejoiced greatly" 
with Israel on the king's accession,. and 
" mourned " for him when he went astray. 

There he stood knitting "together the 
disjointed bones of a dislocated time," 
crying, "'Behold, to obey is better than 
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of 
rams." 

From his youth he had been gathering 
momentum as a man, and sagacity as a 



statesman. He spread both qualities 
throughout the nation. He labored till 
the tribes had been welded into a nation 
under a king. That king proving dark- 
'souled, suspicious, melancholy, disobe- 
dient, Samuel designated young, bright, 
heroic, devoted David as his successor, by 
the anointing oil. And thus having com- 
pleted the great transition from tribal sav- 
agery to kingly security, from symboliz- 
ing Tabernacle to symbolized manhood, he 
said to assembled Israel : 

"And now behold the king walketh be- 
fore you, and I am old and gray-headed, 
and I have walked before you from child- 
hood unto this day. Behold, here I am — 
witness against me before the Lord whose 
ox have I taken ? or whom have I de- 
frauded ? or whom have I oppressed ? or 
of whose hand have I received any 
bribe ? " And the people said : " Thou 
hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us, 
neither hast thou taken aught of any 
man's hand." 

After this, we read: "And Samuel 
died, and all Israel lamented him and 
buried him in his house at Ramah." 

THUS THIS STURDY ARISTIDES OF THE 
NATION DEPARTED. 

But he left behind him a new founda- 
tion, on which the nation stood, and from 
which it started forward to unexampled 
splendor. He stands in history as the 
type of growth without revolution, of 
sanctity without simulation, of obedience 
without defection, of majesty without 
meanness, of grandeur without grovelling, 
of sagacity without chicanery — a truly 
great soul, that lifted a whole nation 
up out of chaos and disaster, and set 
it on a new course of prosperhVy for 
the next four hundred years; a soul 



404 



SAMUEL, THE SEER. 



so great and good that it sowed the 
seed that sprang up dining the Golden 
Age of Israel, and is springing up 
to-day all over Cliistendom. A soul so 
great and good that it listened only for 
the thoughts of heaven, and sowed them 
broadcast through all future time. 

WHAT COULD LEAD AXY MAX TO SLANDER 

such a sage, seer, statesman and prophet 
as this but the most abject meanness ? 
Who but a blasphemer dare call such a 
heaven-honored, time-crowned king of his 
race as this " miserable old enchanter," 
•■ bleer old ghost." "oiled with hypoc- 
racy in every fibre.''' I repel the calumi- 
nous defamation as unworthy the lips of a 
devil, much more unworthy the lips of a 
man. Away ! "away ! ! away ! ! ! with 
such desecrating detractions and detract- 
ors from civil society, and let them be 
branded black with the grime of their 
own obloquy, and buried deeply beneath 
the foul loam of their own scurrilities. 

Mothers, I present Samuel's mother as 
an example for you to follow. 

Fathers, I offer Samuel's father as a 
pattern for you to emulate. 

Young men, I set before you Samuel's 
youthhood as a most fitting model for yon 
to copy. 

Mature men and women, I commend 
Samuel's full-orbed life as a splendid pre- 
cedent for you to mould alter. 

Venerable fathers and mothers, bearing 
upon you the white blossoms of the grave, 
I counsel you to make the closing scene of 
Samuel's life as closely fitting a type as 
possible of your own. 

All people, I entreat you to make Sam- 
uel's God and Father, in every trying 
scene your own. 

We never can innocently countenance 



an unholy compromise. We never can 
permit a pharisaic and stupid policy. 
Ours the battle, the victory and the God. 

May not we hope that some of you shall 
rise and fill to the full some such transi- 
tional time as Samuel filled? Times of 
transition are now upon us. 'We can do 
our part in these as he did his in those. 

Wc can help forward the re-statement 
of the old and fundamental truths in 
their new and scientific dress. We can 
beat back the 

BAYIXG AXD HUXGEY HOUXDS OF 
IXFIDELITY 

that rise on every hand. And, above all, 
we can aid some strenuously struggling 
souls past their crisis of regenerating 
change. We can aid them past " birth's 
invidious bar "' till they, too. shall become 
a harmonic part of that well-compacted 
Christian System, formed to pardon, 
cleanse, comfort, enrapture and lift the 
world. None of you can tell what God may 
do with and for you if, as Samuel, you 
place yourselves under divine control. If 
you exclude the secular and include the 
spiritual ; if. without regard to fear or fa- 
vor, you look and listen to only God. he 
will make you a factor and a force in this 
time of transition. And in you the 
elements of the divine kingdom shall 
be •• fitly joined together and compacted 
by that which every joint supplieth, ac- 
cording to the effectual working in the 
measure, of every part making increase of 
the body unto edifying of itself in love." 
Time forbids repulse of the enemy's at- 
tack on the two kings. David and Solo- 
mon. This we reserve for next Sabbath 
evening. 

And now may the God of truth guide 
us all into all truth. Amen. 



David and Solomon. 



" And thou Solomon, my son, know thou the 
This is the dying charge of King David 

AMONG the kings of time there have 
been many mighty inonarchs, but 
never one like David. Though son 
of a village Sheik of Bethelem, he stands 
in majesty alone. In him the divergent 
currents of the blood of Gentile, and of 
Jew met and mingled into one. This, 
too, doubtless of divine design for he was 
predestined progentitor of the world's 
Kedeemer. 'Twas fitting he by blood 
should be related to all mankind. He 
sweeps the range of human vicissitude 
from deepest to highest note. 

Picture to yourselves a neglected lad, 
bright eyes, graceful figure, comely coun- 
tenance, swift of foot, strong of arm, with 
a sling and wallet slung from his side and 
rustic harp in his hand ; see him ranging 
the rugged hills guiding his father's 
sheep, driving off the ravenous beasts, 
scaling the cliff's till his lungs were 
leather, flying to protect the flocks till 
his nerves were iron and his muscle steel. 
Harmonizing his emotions with his harp 
and kindling his devotions at the stars. 
That is David, the boy. And blessed is 
the youth who makes the most of hardy 
drill. It is such training builds the best 
of men. Trace the history of every great 
man in this land, from Washington, the 
lad-like land surveyor, down, and you will 
find that toughening toil had early entered 
their life. Dudes may be built by youth- 
ful luxury ; but not kingly leaders of 
mankind. If you are poor, despised, for- 



God of thy Father."— I. Chron. xxviii : 9. 

to his distinguished son and successor. 

gotten and hard worked, employ the 
opportunity such condition gives. Be 
true amid the youthful whirlwinds of 
adversity and when manhood matures, 
like Wellington, you shall stand " four 
square to all the winds that blow." And 
like David, " Though an host encamp 
against you your heart shall not fear." 
To this hardy shepherd minstrel came a 
kingdom and a crown. But these came 
not to him by accident, or luck, but 
because, with all his faults he was the 
bravest, best and brightest of his time. 

Bravest ! Here comes a lion and then 
a bear to devour the tender kids ! Does 
David run breathless to tell his elder 
brothers, Eliab, etc. ? No ! he puts up his 
crook and goes in and lays out both Bruin 
and Leo. In the battle raging between 
Philistine and Israel, does he fly the 
" bound of blood " and secrete himself in 
cavern till danger is past ? No ! fired with 
faith and fortitude he speeds to Ephes- 
dammin and there sees Goliath, of Gath, 
shaking the Israelites' camp with a chal- 
lenge to single combat. With confidence 
in the God of Israel he rushes down to 
the brook of Elah, which separates him 
from his great antagonist, picks his peb- 
bles, adjusts his sling and flies to the 
charge. Ou ! Ou ! ! Ou ! ! ! Ah ! Zip ! ! ! 
and out speeds the well aimed stout-slung 
stone that went smashing through the 
boaster's brain and prostrate before him 
lay the giant of his time and foe of his 



408 



DAVID AND SOLOMON. 



race. Dark souled Saul hurls a javelin at 
his head and then pursues him with the 
ferocious scent of a sleuth-hound amid the 
fastnesses of Masada and Engedi, where, 
during a natural and necessary event at 
the mouth of a cave the blood thirsting 
king accidently and unconsciously put 
himself in his power. Does he cut off 
the head of the pre-occupied monarch 
panting like a wild beast for his life ? 
Nay : but in fearless magnanimity cuts 
off the skirt of the royal robe and waved 
it before the eyes of the king to show 
him he was still his friend. And when, 
in course of events, Saul, with his sons 
were by the Philistines slain, on Gilboa, 
and David was called to the throne, did 
he cravenly sit down to enjoy indolently 
the great distinction? Nay! with the 
swiftness of a Napoleon ; the vigor of an 
Alexander; the skill of a Eameses and 
Sernacherib combined, he organized the 
royal house, invented chain armor, mobi- 
lized the host, drilled the (Gibborim) 
" mighty men," established officers of 
state, drew the. prophets to his side, fos- 
tered the priests of God, wove heroically 
every element of strength into his king- 
dom and himself, and then, when all were 
ready he vanquished the Philistines on 
the West; Moabites, on the South; 
Syrians, on the North ; and the Ammon- 
ites, on the East, with the celerity and 
thoroughness of an Akbar the Great. So 
that whatever qualities in a fair analysis 
of his character we may deny David, 
we must attribute to him that sublime 
attribute of man, the attribute of cour- 
age. And, sirs, there never was an age 
when this excellence was more neces- 
sary than now. Not the courage of Cava- 
lier and man of blood. Not the cour- 



age that revels in the cruel carnage of 
the olden time. But the social, civil, 
moral courage that means honest, manly 
business for the welfare of our fellow 
men. The courage that scorns to bend 
to mean devices for a selfish purpose. 
The courage that is not afraid to speak 
the truth, though a whole city is in arms 
against it. 

The courage that mounts to the majesty 
of each dutiful occasion and dares do and 
say all that becomes a man. We need 
men, and women too, in these supple and 
salacious times, these times of daring 
scepticism and pretensions, who will 
stand by principle as well as prayer. Men 
and women who are not afraid to say : 

" I have set my life upon a cast 

And I will stand the hazard of the die." 

Men and women, who, in a Christian 
sense, believe it 

"Better like Hector in the field to die ; 
Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly." 

Men and women who evince 

"An independent spark of Heaven's bright throne 
By which the soul stands raised triumphant, high, 
alone ; 

Great in itself, not praises from the crowd, 
Above all vice and stoops not to be proud, 
Courage the mighty attribute of powers above ; 
By which those great in war are great in love. 
The spring of all great acts is seated here, 
As falsehoods draw their sordid birth from fear." 

If David was bravest he was also best 
of his time. We are to remember that in 
those days the human race was emerg- 
ing out of infancy into boyhood. That, 
therefore, full grown men, round and com- 
plete in every excellence, are not to be ex- 
pected. The Bible nowhere presents the 



DAVID AND SOLOMON. 



409 



actors in the old dispensation as examples 
we are to follow in all respects. The 
Bible (and here is proof of the inspira- 
tional integrity of the Book), presents its 
characters as they were. It shows us 
when they sinned they sank, and when 
they obeyed, they soared. Hence David's 
vices are recorded as fully as his virtues. 
No honest man desires to palliate or imi- 
tate his faults. And no worthy man can 
but admire his deep and genuine penitence. 
After his crime in the case of Bathsheba, 
(and this is the one always hurled against 
him), as soon as conviction entered his 
spirit, through the parabolic ministry of 
the prophet Nathan, he, in profoundest pen- 
itence exclaimed "I have sinned against 
the Lord," II. Sam. XI I. 13. 

And so great was his desire that he 
wrote it in the penitential Psalm LI., 
tl Have mercy upon me, God ! according 
to thy loving kindness, according unto the 
multitude of thy tender mercies blot out 
my transgressions, wash me thoroughly 
from mine iniquity and cleanse me from 
my sin." If every man guilty of a 
kindred crime would write a similar hymn 
there would be more penitential lyrics in 
this world than there are. If we had more 
faithful Nathans there would be more re- 
pentant Davids. 

But notwithstanding David's failings, 
(there are spots on the sun, caverns in the 
moon and volcanoes on the earth) no man 
is justified in characterizing him as a 
" dare-devil," as a "bad great man," "sens- 
ual, revengeful, implacable." That at 
times he evinced these qualities no reader 
dare deny. That these were the prevail- 
ing attributes in his nature no compe- 
tent critic can affirm. The trend of his 
life was away from these sludges of 



sin and shame. His general cry was 
" Create in me a clean heart, God ! and 
renew a right spirit within me." " My soul 
thirsteth for thee," was his usual attitude. 
A man's usual habit is that by which his 
character must be judged. It might as 
logically be said because Vesuvius, iEtna 
and Cotopaxi name, that this is a flaming 
globe, as because for a time there were a 
few moral eruptions in David's life, there- 
fore, his whole being was corrupt. 

Such scandalous criticism is unfair, un- 
charitable and unscholarly. Historic, phil- 
osophic and scientific facts doom it to the 
lowest deeps. It is unworthy the tongue 
of man. 

The great Scotch critic, Thomas Carlyle, 
whom no one -can accuse of being specially 
lenient toward sacred characters, speaks 
in the ' following fashion of David in his 
"Heroes and Hero Worship;" "What 
are faults that are the outward details of 
a life, if the main secret of it, the re- 
morse, the temptations, the often baffled, 
never ended struggle of it be forgotten ? " 
David's life and history, as written for us 
in those psalms of his, I consider to be 
the truest emblem ever given us of a 
man's moral progress and warfare here 
below. All earnest souls will ever dis- 
cern in it the faithful struggle of an 
earnest human soul toward what is good 
and best. 

This struggle he kept up to the last. 
On up through his checkered and aspiring 
youth ; on through the wrecks of out- 
lawry till he reached the crown ; on 
through the subjugation of surrounding 
nations and the home-bringing of the Ark 
of God ; on through the revolution of the 
nation under his own son Absalom and 
the devastations of the destroying angel 



410 



DAVID AND SOLOMON. 



whose hand was outstretched to slay ; 
on through disruptions without and de- 
ceptions within, this great soul still man- 
fully struggled toward the best till finally 
having collected materials to build the 
noblest temple of its time, the dying king 
summoned his successor before him and 
delivered his departing charge. "And 
thou Solomon my son know thou the God 
of thy father, and serve him with a per- 
fect heart and willing mind, for the Lord 
searcheth all hearts and understandeth 
the imaginations of the thoughts ; if thou 
seek him he will be found of thee; but if 
thou forsake him he will cast thee off 
forever." Then turning toward heaven in 
the presence of the host, who had come in 
imitation of his own high example with 
gifts for the temple he was not permitted 
to build, he rendered an ascription to the 
Almighty that has never been surpassed. 
"Thine, Lord, is the greatness and the 
power, and the glory, and the victory, and 
the majesty for all that is in the heaven, 
and in the earth is thine ; thine is the 
kingdom, Lord, arid thou art exalted as 
head above all. Both riches and honor 
come from thee and thou reignest over 
all, and in thine hand is power and might, 
and in thine hand it is to make great and 
to give strength unto all; now therefore, 
our God we thank thee and praise thy 
glorious name. But who am I, and what 
is my people that we should be able to 
offer so willingly after this sort ? For 
all things come of thee and of thine own 
have we given thee." And then after 
praying for his son, he turned to the 
people whom he always loved, and to 
whom he was ever true, and said, " Now 
bless the Lord, your God," and then went 
home to die. As in the Mohammedan 



Mosque of David, in the south section of 
Jerusalem I looked upon the cenotaph 
above the cavern supposed to contain his 
dust, and the Arabic inscription, " 
David, whom God has made vicar, rule 
mankind in truth," I never thought I 
would be forced to defend a memory 
which even the wild Arabs venerate. 
Such, however, is the case, and happily 
there is abundance of material with 
which to defend it. Indeed, abundance 
is the difficulty, for amid such mass it is 
not easy to select. One point I want 
made clear is this : In David was con- 
tinued in a deeper, wider, loftier sense 
what had been begun in Samuel. In him 
was continued the transcription of the 
law from cold tables of stone to the warm 
tablets of the human heart. "Thy law," 
he says, " have I hid in my heart that I 
might not sin against thee." This v^as a 
new sun rising upon a royal soul which 
rayed itself out over the whole nation, 
and has since been shining over the civi- 
lized world. That sun-lit heart is laid 
bare in this book of Hebrew Hymns, 
known as the Psalms of David. 

To a charming magnetic grace that 
drew even outlaws around him, the 
Creator added all the genius and spirit 
of a king. A conceited man, before a 
company of clergymen, drew the other 
day a pyramid. The scientists, scholars 
and poets he represented as clambering 
up the sides at various stages by difficult 
ascent, and then he convulsed the com- 
pany by dashing a round dot on the apex 
and exclaiming : " But I was born there ! " 
David was born at the top of his times. 
God intended him for greatness, and he 
was great; but that greatness was versa- 
tile and multiplex and graduated first 



DAVID AND SOLOMON. 



411 



toward the law, and then toward the love 
of God. 

As a father, he was the first in history 
to weep convulsively over a rebel son in 
the words of wild lament, " my son ! 
Absalom my son! my son! Absalom, 
would to God I had died for thee ! Ab- 
salom, my son! my son!" He was the 
second that ever expressed a prayer that 
the national calamity might be directed 
from his people and fall upon himself. 
Something of the complex grandeur of 
his character shines in the words of Chris- 
topher Smart: 

" Pleasant and various as the year — 
Priest, champion, sage and boy." 

But the memory of David is endeared 
to the world more by the lyric hymns 
which flowed from his poetic pen than 
even by his superior management of the 
monarchy. They have flowed in winning 
strains through all succeeding ages. Where 
is the church — where the Christian land 
— where the Christian man, that has not 
been lifted by " Blessed is the man that 
walketh not in the counsel of the un- 
godly ? " What human being has not 
felt the throb of an Almighty pulse com- 
ing from the heart of an all-provident 
provider as he has caught the undercur- 
rent of the strain: "The Lord is my 
Shepherd, I shall not want ? " 

The ploughman in the field, the merch- 
ant in the counting-house, the mother in 
the nursery, the artisan in the workshop, 
the preacher in the pulpit, the statesman 
in the Senate, the king on the throne have 
been thrilled these three thousand years 
by David's sacred songs. Their highly 
poetical.- charm conveying the divinity, 
stroke after stroke, lifts up the heaving 



and sobbing heart. Their divine diversity, 
affluent almost as wealthy nature, suits 
the ever changing play of human feeling, 
thought and circumstance. Irving sweetly 
says, "His harp was full-stringed, and 
every angel of joy and of sorrow swept 
over the chords as he passed." Ah, sirs ! 
Irving has almost struck the key note of 
David's hallowed hymns. A deeper note 
remains. It is this. The Creator led him 
through the round of human sorrow and 
of joy to the deepest depths, to the high- 
est heights, that he might be able to 
touch human nature at every chord and 
then put his orchestra in him and bade 
him sing. And so he has been singing 
through all posthumous time, to an Au- 
gustine, on his bed of death ; to a Savon- 
arola, amid the persecuting storm ; to a 
Wesley, amid the bowlings of numerous 
mobs; to a Wallace, amid his pilgrim 
wanderings ; to a Luther, amid the throes 
of revolution and to a Polycarp, Huss 
and Hiidebrand, amid the spasms of dis- 
solution. Who can fathom the emotions 
of joy ? Who can measure the viber- 
ations of rapture ? Who can tell the 
waves of victory that have swept over 
the countless millions of immortal souls 
through this hallowed minstrelsy ? Min- 
strelsy sung in chapel, church, cathedral, 
city ; village, landscape, and by the infant 
lisping its prayer at its mother's knee ; 
minstrelsy so sweet it suits the solitary 
wayfarer ; so strong it is capable of rising 
to the majesty and magnificence of delight; 
so free that like a linnet shaking the dew 
drops from its wing in the morning, soars 
and sings, and sings and soars, till all 
the sky is full of melody. So vital, that 
when other lyrics die away and wither 
like the sear leaf before the autumnal 



-412 



DAVID ASD SOLOMOS. 



gale, it only sings the sweeter and mounts 
the higher and makes more resonant and 
satisfactory song. 

So tender that it passes by the frail in- 
teguments of clay and sings sweetly to the 
soul itself, as its favorite child, making 
the world resound with •• Deliver my dar- 
ling from the power of the dog.'" 

So hopeful that it mounts into the sky 
and prophetically sings of Messiah who 
should save — of "The Lord (the Fa- 
ther), who said unto my Lord (the Son). 
• Sit thou at My right hand until I 
make thine enemies thy footstool.' " 
And of the glorious time when the re- 
deemed hosts shall be. for beauty and 
numbers, like the dewdrops sparkling in 
the sunbeams of the morning. 

Thus. then, yau see David standing 
back in the ages as the inaugurator of a 
new epoch. He ushers in a dispensation 
superior fur to any that had preceded it. 
He. himself, was an incarnation of a fresh 
revealment. A revealnient which was far 
in advance of the Adaruie. the Xoacbic, 
the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, or that of the 
Judges. A new light has been in the 
world since David's day. It is the light 
that beams from the life he left behind 
him. and such is its heraldic and sym- 
phonic charm that, like its offspring. 
"The bright and morning star." it shall 
never fade away. The mere recital of 
this bare outline without other argument. 

REPULSES UTTERLY THE VORACIOUS 
VULTURES. 

They may say he never wrote uhe Psalms 
that bear his name. They may also say 
God never swung the sun out into the 
sky. and a thousand other equally silly 
things. But they cannot offer a single 



ray of proof. They can assume, and arro- 
gate, and suppose, and guess, and assert, 
and deny, but I challenge them to furnish 
a single reason that will for one moment 
stand before enlightened conscience, 
domed with an analytic mind. Any luna- 
tic can root up and tear down and deny. 
The State wisely consigns such persons to 
an asylum, and the people are spared 
the havoc they would make. But what 
shall we do with the ecclesiastical lunatic 
who turns his shepherd's crook into a 
sword to cut to pieces the watering con- 
duits of the flocks of God? If a man 
went up country to where the pipes con- 
vey the clear, fresh water in which we all 
take such delight, and commenced, with 
sledge-hammer, to smash those water 
tubes and stop our supply, and give us a 
little sleazy stream of murky rnud, cor- 
rupted by decaying carcasses, what would 
you say of such a brazen man ? Why, you 
would say he ought to be captured and 
confined till he learned how to be a better 
citizen. And he doubtless would be so 
confined. But here is a man who com- 
mits a crime as much more fatal, as the 
soul is more precious than the body. He 
gathers together an armory of battle axes 
and battering ram<. nude by the destruc- 
tionists of the ages, and w-ek after week 
and year after year, batters away at the 
channels laid to convey the pure, cooling 
crystal waters of eternal lite to man. 
With the debris of his infernal work lie 
blocks up the passages, stuffs the tubes, 
demolishes the pipes and turns all who 
heed him out into the arid desert of 
negation, to waste and pine and die. 
The laws of the land concerning actions in 
the realm of thought, soul and spirit, are 
such that we cannot confine a lunatic, no 



DAVID AND SOLOMON. 



413 



matter how savagely he cuts and hews 
in the spirit realm, notwithstanding 
that the spirit realm is the real realm. 
The civil law is mainly for the regula- 
tion of outward physical demean or. It 
takes no notice of evil, so long as 
it takes on no physical shape. What, 
then, can we do with ecclesiastical de- 
structionists and lunatics ? First, we 
can pray for them ; second, we can in- 
struct them ; third, we can resist them. 
And where these three things are done 
with sufficient energy and persistence they 
will always desist their destructive work. 
They have no high moral convictions ; no 
exalted and all-controlling principles to 
stand for. And, therefore, so long as peo- 
ple pay them, and hear them and flatter 
them, of course they will continue their 
nefarious work. But let the people quit 
paying them and encouraging them, and 
let them turn upon them the battery of 
prayer and the headlight of persistent re- 
sistance, and they will run away the first 
good chance. Eats always run when 
they see a man coming toward them with 
a light. 

But little time remains to repulse the 
attack on Solomon. The enemy says, "Solo- 
mon was mush." This shows of what 
kind of material some brains are made. 
Solomon, mush ? Aye ! well take a run- 
ning glance at him and see this mushy 
man. When God said, " Ask what I shall 
give thee," he did not request riches, 
rank, honor, long life, renown, nor pleas- 
ure ; but as a young prince most fittingly 
replied, " Give thy servant an understand- 
ing heart to judge thy people, that I may 
discern between good and bad." The 
enemies that even David feared he de- 
spatched as soon as he reached the throne. 



Even " Joab, the Douglas of the house of 
David, was like a Douglas slain." His 
judicial skill was shown in the sagacity 
with which, through the instincts of 
mother's love, he determined to which of 
the contending two the living child be- 
longed by proposing a half to each. 

He recovered Hamath, established fort- 
resses along the heights of Lebanon ; 
opened up relations with Egypt, then one 
of the grandest nations on the earth, and 
married the lovely daughter of one of the 
greatest monarch s of the world. 

He opened up relations with Arabia. 
Cut his way out to the Indian Ocean, and 
sent sailors forth upon the mysterious 
deep to far off Ophir for spices and gold, 
silver and ivory, cinnamon, monkeys and 
peacocks. 

He established a profitable reciprocity 
with Hiram of Tyre, and when there 
in 1.887, I could not but admire the splen- 
did water works he built, which are still 
the leading glory of the place. 

He advanced the external prosperity 
and the internal peace of the Empire to 
such an extent that the records of his 
reign ring with jubilation as of an Augus- 
tian age — a golden age, beaming beneath 
the splendors of a golden day. 

He formed his Court on a scale of mag- 
nificence never known before or since in 
Palestine. His camp on such a basis of* 
efficiency as cowed all surrounding nations, 
and his general administration on such a 
range of grandeur that the Queen of 
Sheba was attracted from the uttermost 
parts of the earth by reports of his glory. 
Yet, when she looked upon it, she said, 
" The half was not told me." 

The city, the palace, the porch, the 
throne, the banquets, rose up into a stately 



414 



DAVID AND SOLOMON. 



and superlative majesty, beneath his cre- 
ative hand. 

The royal stables, which the traveler 
still sees, with their thousands of stalls, 
beneath the ruins in Jerusalem, were the 
products of his capacious mind, and his 
gardens, fountains, conduits and reservoirs 
are the ornaments of Palestine till this 
day. 

Towering in importance and glory above 
all these, under his genius, on Mount 
Moriah, without sound of an axe or ham- 
mer, like some tall palm, the noiseless 
fabric of the temple sprang. Grand as 
the Alcazar of Seville, or the Ipsambul of 
Thebes, or the Taj of the Jummna, it rose 
in glory to the sky, as the very " Hearth 
of God." 

Above all these works of art and ad- 
ministrative magnificence, his fame for 
superior wisdom spread over all the 
earth. 

Justice, judgment and truth shone out 
from him like a triad of graces the wide 
world o'er. The largeness of his heart 
was only equalled by the comprehensive- 
ness and penetration of his mind. He 
was a master of abstruse riddles and of 
natural as well as architectural science. 

His songs numbered five thousand, and 
his proverbs three thousand, and such is 
their superior pith, wit and weight that 
many of them come down to the present 
times unsurpassed as sententious, axiom- 
atic gems. Such was Solomon, a man 
whom even the Mussulmans of to-day 
adorn with the name of " Suleman the 
Grand." And why should he be slan- 
dered? Because he happened to be a 
Bible character ! That is the reason. If 
he had been a merely temporal prince he, 
by the same and kindred sources, would 



have been lauded to the skies. But these 
sons of Belial imagine they can belittle 
Christianity by besmurching its representa- 
tives, and so they, industriously ply this 
fiendish business. It reminds of a 
brood of serpents spitting at the sun. 
What cares he for their hissing, poison- 
ous slime ? And as little need David and 
Solomon regard the diatribes of detracting 
breeds. There, with all their failings, 
which I neither palliate nor deny, they 
stand at the initial points of a divine 
movement that spreads its healing balm 
wherever disease is found. David stands 
for courage and indomitable devotion in 
the Church of God. Solomon stands for 
the unparalleled splendors that spring 
wherever that Church has pure and un- 
disputed sway over the hearts and minds 
of men. Mark me, I do not now speak of 
the exterior church, which alack ! alas ! 
is too often an aggregation of gossiping 
hypocrites. But of the genuine Church, 
of whatever name, that lives within the 
laws and life and love of God. 

This Church is indomitable and mag- 
nificent. David represents the indomita- 
ble and Solomon the magnificent. And 
the purpose is that the Christian char- 
acters of these maturing times shall be a 
beautiful, powerful inter-blending of both. 
Aim then at invincibility of spirit in con- 
quering wrong and securing right. Aim, 
too, at a magnificence of growth in the 
afiiuent graces of " love, joy, peace, gen- 
tleness, goodness, meekness, temperance 
and charity," under the fostering influences 
of the Holy Ghost. 

And now may the God of all power 
save us from the frailities of his servant 
David and his son Solomon, and perfect 
us in their perfections also. Amen. 



The Prophets of God* 



"To Him give all the prophets witness." — Acts x : 43-44- 



WE have before us to-night one of 
the greatest, most destructive and 
dangerous falsehoods ever uttered 
by the lips of man. A falsehood which, 
if believed, would rob this world of all 
communication with its Creator, Pre- 
server and Redeemer. 

A falsehood which, if practiced, would 
leave us in the gloom and silence of a 
night that never could have a morning. 
Here is that awful falsehood: 

« Whenever and wherever you find a 
book that contains any minute and cir- 
cumstantial description of a future historic 
event you may rest assured that the book 
was written after the event. In that ex- 
traordinary and miraculous sense there 
never was any such thing as prophecy." 

That statement is as false as any 
that ever issued out of the mouth of 
perdition. And after I get through with 
this refutation, if there is a man in this 
great audience who does not believe so, I 
want to see him as a curiosity. A curi- 
osity whose judgment has been so warped 
and distorted that it is utterly incapable 
of discriminating between conclusive evi- 
dence and foolish assumption. 

1 select for our text Acts x. : 43-44. To 
Him give all the prophets witness." 

The Apostle Peter spoke these words to 
prove that Jesus was sent by the Almighty. 
I now use them to show that the prophets 
were sent by Jehovah. Because it is 
clear if they foretold thousands or hun- 
dreds of years ahead the coming of 
Messiah they must have been inspired to 



do so. The question before us, then, is 
did these prophets actually foretell the 
coming of the Christ ? Most unquestion- 
ably and emphatically yes ! How do we 
know ? The infallible record declares 
it ! Now, let us look at that record. 

Jehovah Himself is the first prophet 
(Gen. iii: 15). In cursing the serpent 
(i. e., Satan) for invading the human 
race, He said to him : " I will put enmity 
(conflict) between thee and the woman, 
and between thy seed and her seed, and it 
shall bruise thy head, and thou shall 
bruise his heel." Here is a prophecy 
right from the Fountain Head. Has it 
been fulfilled ? Has there been a conflict 
between good and bad ? There never has 
been an hour since in which this conflict 
has not been going on. It is going on 
now. It shall go on till the head of Sa- 
tan is crushed. It is between the seed of 
the woman (the Christ) and that of the 
serpent (the Evil One) that this battle 
has been progressing for nearly six thou- 
sand years. Call up history ! Is it not an 
incessant succession of battles between 
good and evil, truth and error, light and 
darkness, right and wrong ? And is not 
the good overcoming the bad, the light 
the darkness, the right the wrong? And 
do not the presages point to the victory of 
virtue and the vanquishment of vice? 
And that through " The Christ ? " 

If so, this first-prophecy, swung out 
like a lamp in the midnight by the Al- 
mighty, has been fulfilled, and is be- 
ing fulfilled before our very eyes. You 



418 



THE PROPHETS OF GOD. 



are a part of the combatants. You are 
now in the fight. You feel it. You see 
it. You know it. It would be easy, 
scientifically, to demonstrate from this 

ONE PASSAGE ALONE THE INTEGRITY AND 
REALITY OF PROPHECY. 

I prefer, however, to sketch a number, 
and so reach a cumulative conclusion. And 
right here let me utter my protest against 
all this fanfare of the enemy about prov- 
ing Scripture by Scripture. Don't you 
prove mathematics by mathematics? Don't 
you prove Geometry by its axioms ? Don't 
you prove science by science ? Every one 
of you who has been to school to advan- 
tage knows that much, and those of you 
who do not know that much ought to go 
to school. Now, take another of the 
prophets. He is no modern imposter, 
who could have seen through natural eyes, 
and then wrote down what he saw and 
palmed it off as prophecy. It is vener- 
able and dying Jacob, leaning from in- 
firmity on the top of his staff, sixteen 
hundred years before the Grand Epiphany 
of which he spoke transpired. He called 
in oriental and primitive style his twelve 
sons before him, and with the fire of a 
heavenly vaticinator shining in his mind, 
and speaking from his aged tongue, he 
told those sons what would befall them in 
'•' the last days." There is not time to de- 
scribe the prophetic pictures of all. You 
can find the description in the 4i)tli chap- 
ter of Genesis, and the fulfillment to the 
letter in the succeeding history of the 
twelve tribes of whom these famous sons 
were progenitors. I will only call your 
minds to the prophetic utterance relating 
to the grand figure in our text. ''The 
scepter shall not depart from Jndah . . . . 



until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the 
gathering of the people be." Remember, 
this description of Juclah is in comparison 
with the other brothers It had no rela- 
tion to what niight happen to Judah, ex- 
cept as compared with his brothers. 
Hence the Babylonish captivity and the 
subjugation by the Romans are not to enter 
into the view at all. Now then, trace the 
children of Judah side by side with the 
children of the other sons. That tribe 
was always supreme, always carried the 
scepter, in the brick fields of Egypt ; in 
the march beside the Ark in Arabia; in 
the settlement in Canaan; in the vic- 
tories over outside enemies ; in the crush- 
ing of inside broils; in giving the 
nation the two great kings, David and 
Solomon ; in helping to lift the nation to 
its Augustan glories ; in building and sus- 
taining that magnificent temple, the type 
of the Messiah ; in remaining true to the 
Divine Hearth during the revolt of the ten 
tribes under Jereboam ; in keeping up 
the temple services in all their circum- 
stantial and ceremonial splendor after ten 
of the tribes had (by falling into idolatry 
and infidelity) been conquered, carried 
away captive and lost, until at length in 
the ripeness of time, Shiloh came while 
Judah was still flourishing throughout 
Judea, and especially in the capital, Jeru- 
salem. Thus through the horoscope of 
premonstration this venerable seer, with 
the eternal world dawning upon him, was 
permitted to look down through sixteen 
hundred eventful centuries, and as in a 
drama, describe what happened his chil- 
dren in their latter days. 

The announcement of such unequivocal 
event should surely be enough to satisfy 
anyone who is not dead in unbelief and 



THE PROPHETS OF GOD. 



419 



blindly superstitious in a monstrous 
stupidity ; and. when we add the other 
part of the prophecy, namely, "And to 
him (Shiloh Christ) shall the gathering 
of the people be," the evidence becomes 
unanswerable. This is being now fulfilled 
after a lapse of over three thousand five 
hundred years. So that Jacob saw not 
only through sixteen, but thirty-five cen- 
turies, and describes with precise prognos- 
tication, what is now transpiring every day 
before our very eyes. " To Him shall the 
gathering of people be." Sacriligious de- 
tractors announce that the people are 
gathering around Buddha. I deny it, I 
have seen Buddhism, and I tell you it is 
breaking up. Others say the people are 
gathering around Brahma. I repel the 
statement. I have seen Brahmanism, and 
it is staggering in decay. Others affirm 
the people are gathering around Moham- 
med. I denounce the error. I have seen 
Mohammedanism, and its very legs are 
supported by Christian parliaments for 
political purposes only. I have mingled 
with most of the people of this world, and 
studied eagerly their ultimate gatherings 
with judicial impartiality ; and, if you 
want to know to whom " the gathering of 
the people " is, I tell you now, that the 
people of this planet are gathering around 
Jesus of Nazareth (Shiloh) just as 
rapidly as they outgrow their errors and 
their evils. Here then, you have the 
three prophesies, one of which was utter- 
ed four thousand years before the event ; 
and another, which was declared almost 
three thousand six hundred years previ- 
ous to these times in which it is being 
most signally fulfilled. And each one of 
the three either has been or is being ac- 
complished with all the detailed minute- 



ness of a problem in geometry. And yet 
it is possible in this age of scientific pro- 
gress to find a recognized teacher who 
has had the dull, bold stupidity to 
stand up before people who ought to be 
progressively intelligent, and tell them 
that, " There never was any such thing as 
prophecy." 

The same prodigy who has made him- 
self so notorious by stating, with all the 
air of an oracle, a multitude of other 
things as palpably absurd, asserts, "When- 
ever you find a book that contains any 
minute and circumstantial description of 
a future historic event you may rest as- 
sured that the book was written after the 
event." Chapter xix. of the Book of 
Job, contains a description of a future 
historic event. Job is also " among the 
prophets." He becomes possessed by a 
mighty impulse that bore him out to a 
mighty vision. So surpassingly weighty, 
vital and essential becomes his burden of 
vision that he cries out, " Oh, that my 
words were now written ! Oh, that they 
were inscribed in a book ! That with an 
iron pen and lead they were graven in the 
rock forever ! " Why ? ? ? " Because I 
know that my Redeemer liveth, and that 
he shall stand up at the last upon the 
earth." That was his glorious burden. 
Here is a distinct, clear proclamation con- 
cerning the Redeemer coming forth from 
the far distant ages, from the tongue of a 
suffering saint. It is so clear, so power- 
ful, that it sounds still, like the notes of a 
trumpet calling us to an immortal hope, 
through the world's (Ooali Hai) living 
Deliverer. It is a clarion voice coming 
out of the past, announcing the Redeemer's 
advent, fifteen hundred years before that 
advent arrived. And not only the fact 



420 



THE PROPHETS OF GOD. 



that he should come was thus pre-an- 
nounced. but the 

PARTICULAR PLACE 

where he would appear was minutely fore- 
told. In Chapter v. of Micah. that 
special spot is portrayed : " But thou 
Bethlehem, Ephratah, which art little to 
be among the thousands of Judah, out of 
thee shall One come forth unto me that is 
to be Ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth 
are from of old, from everlasting." Here 
is a minute, circumstantial description of 
a future historic event that was written 
seven hundred years before that event. 
The eighteen hundred and eighty-seventh 
anniversary of the Nativity I spent in 
this same Bethlehem. I spent that memor- 
able night in visiting the manger cradle 
where was born the baby King ; in watch- 
ing the stars which, in sympathy with the 
grand Epiphany, delegated one of their 
number to guide the wondering wise men 
to where the young child was born ; in 
surveying the moon-lit fields where the 
shepherds saw the heavenly host and 
heard the angelic chorus chanting those 
noblest, sweetest strains that ever touched 
the earth, " Glory to God in the Highest, 
Peace on the Earth and Good Will To- 
ward Men." But, as I roamed that night, 
enraptured, amid those sacred scenes, so 
redolent of Heaven, my happiness was 
never for one moment invaded by the 
harrowing anticipation that I should 
ever be compelled to repulse an attack 
made on the prophets of the infant Jesus 
by any man occupying a pulpit. Blood- 
thirsting Herocls might do that, for an ap- 
parent political necessity ; but, for a man 
who assumes the name of Christian and 
minister, surely this is not only treason, 



but high treason, and not only high 
treason, but highest treason. Truly he 
" out-Herods Herod," by slaughtering, 
not the young infants of a place like 
Bethlehem, but the grown-up infants of 
the present time. Heaven have mercy ! ! 
It is hard to believe human nature 
capable of such mad atrocity ; but there 
it is ; the assault by pen, pulpit and 
press is before us. And what, alas ! for 
humanity, can our wondering souls do but 
believe in the terrible tragedy. But not 
o\\\y was the precise place where Christ 
should be born foretold by the prophet 
Micah ; but the exact time when he would 
die was foretold by the prophet Daniel ; 
and it is recorded in his ninth chapter. 
The seventy weeks of }^ears there re- 
corded fix the time to the day and the 
hour. 

]S r ow notice Christ's work. This is poeti- 
cally foretold in the fortieth Psalm. A 
psalm — mark — which the inspired author 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies in 
Chap. x. to Christ. The Saviour, in this 
psalm, spoke, through David, the prophetic 
and royal bard, and said, u Sacrifice and 
offering thou hast no delight in ; burnt 
offering and sin offering (as an ultimate) 
hast thou not required." Then said I, " Lo, 
I come in the roll of the book it is written 
of me. I delight to do thy will, Oh God 
(this is the ultimate); yea, thy law is 
within my heart. I have published 
righteousness in the great congregation. 
Lo, I will not refrain my lips, Lord. 
Thou knowest I have not hid righteous- 
ness within my heart. I have declared 
thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I 
have not concealed thy loving kindness 
and thy truth from the great congrega- 
tion." 



THE PROPHETS OF GOD. 



421 



Where can we, m even after times, 
find a truer picture of "the working Saviour 
than this ? The divine superiorities that 
struggled for existence in Moses, Joshua, 
Samuel, David and Solomon flush out in 
their full and natural radiance in Jesus. 
The decided cry of his life was, regardless 
of the old pre-hguring economy, regard- 
less of typifying sacrifices now eclipsed, 
" I delight to do Thy will, 0, God," and 
therefore with the law glowing in an all- 
consuming flame of love in his heart, he 
published it to the vast multitudes that 
pressed around him ; on the mount of 
Beatitudes; among the hiving shore 
cities of the sea of Galilee ; on the march 
to and from the Capital ; among the 
packed multitudes who crowded round 
him in the temple precincts, " he hid not 
righteousness in his heart," but declared 
"faithfulness," " salvation," "loving 
kindness" and "truth" to the inquiring 
millions. Surely, no pen-picture could be 
more minute, graphic, grand, of the life- 
work of the Messiah. And yet this fell 
from David's lyric and prophetic pen a 
full thousand years before. 

Now take a glance at the Saviour's 
general appearance, by the prophet Isaiah, 
in his fifty-third chapter. 

"Who hath believed our report ? and 
to whom hath the arm of the Lord been 
revealed '? " The rich and influential 
were too pre-occupied in those days, as. in 
these, to perceive the heavenly royalty 
beaming in Christ. "For He (the Christ) 
shall grow up before him (the sleek, fat 
Pharisee) as a tender plant, and as a root 
out of a dry ground ; he hath no form nor 
comeliness (to eyes of greed and fashion), 
and when we see him there is no 
beauty (worldly) that we should desire 



him. (Therefore) He was despised and 
rejected of men, a man of sorrows and ac- 
quainted with grief, and as one from whom 
men hide their face ; he was despised, 
and we esteemed him not. (Nevertheless) 
Surely he hath borne our griefs and 
carried our sorrows ; yet we did esteem 
him, stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. 
But he was wounded for our trans- 
gressions ; he was bruised for our iniqui- 
ties ; the chastisement of our peace was 
laid on him, and with his stripes we 
are healed. . . . He was oppressed, yet he 
humbled himself and opened not his 
mouth, as a lamb that is led to the 
slaughter, and as a sheep before her 
shearers, is dumb; yet he openeth not his 
mouth. By oppression and judgment he 
was taken away." 

Could there be a more minute circum- 
stantial description of any great historic 
character, given in a few graphic touches, 
than this ? 

As a youth among the rustic scenes of 
distant and despised Nazareth, he grew 
without attracting special attention, ex- 
cept from his wondering family, parti- 
cularly from his marveling mother. As 
a man, he began his ministry without the 
patronage of party, the eclat of University 
or Senatorial sanction. That ministry he 
continued under ever-accumulating sneers 
of the rich, the learned, the popular and 
the proud. Those sneers developed into 
ridicule, that ridicule into suspicion, that 
suspicion into hatred, that hatred into a 
storm cloud of wrathful execration which 
gathered and broke in blasts of rejection 
and vengeance on his wounded body and 
bruised soul ; and so, with a mock, snap- 
judgment, he was " cut off out of the land 
of the ]iving, ,, by the imperious stupidity 



422 



THE PROPHETS OF GOD. 



and monstrous cruelty of those he came to 
save. The whole life and death scene was 
draped in this dark, crimsoned imagery 
and hung out before the eye of the dis- 
cerning world seven hundred centuries 
before. And once more — mark this fact 
— not only all the leading features of 
this greatest and most pathetic drama 
have been thus foretold, but the minute 
incidents of it, also. In that other Mes- 
sianic lyric, the twenty-second Psalm, 
from which the expiring Saviour him- 
self quotes in his dying moments, 
making it his own, we have some of 
these incidental touches, such as " They 
shoot out the lip, they shake the 
head, saying, < Commit thyself unto 
the Lord — let him deliver him ; let 
him deliver him, seeing he trusted in 
him, ' " corresponding precisely with that 
scathing sarcasm hurled at him so veno- 
mously while transfixed in agony on the 
Cross. Matthew, in his twenty-seventh 
chapter, affirms, "And they that passed 
by railed on him, wagging their heads 
and saying, ' If thou art the Son of God, 
come down from the Cross ! ' " " He 
trusted in God ; let him deliver him now, 
if he desireth him ! " And Mark, in his 
fifteenth chapter, adds, "Likewise also 
the chief priests, mocking him among 
themselves with the scribes, said, "He 
saved others, himself he cannot save." 

Another incidental refinement of pro- 
phecy which lets in the light, is recorded 
in the 16th and 18th verses of this same 
Psalm, through whose first verse the 
Saviour poured out the agony of his soul 
to that Father, temporarily obscured by 
the sin-storm that so densely enwrapped 
him — the sin-storm that focused on him 
from all places and all times. The minute 



incidents are contained in the following 
words : 

" They pierced my hannds and my feet ; 
they parted my garments among them, 
and upon my vesture do they cast lots." 
By turning to Matt, xxvii., written a 
thousand years after, we read, " And they 
crucified him,'- i. e„ pierced his hands 
and feet by spiking them home to the 
wood, " and parted his garments, casting 
lots." Commentators commonly suppose 
the lots were cast for his war cloak or 
seamless robe, which could not be divided 
among the executioners without destroy- 
ing it, and was of too* much value for 
anyone to receive as a share in the spoil, 
and so they cast lots for it. There is 
another little incident recorded in Isaiah 
liii. As a crevice in an illuminated 
palace lets out an incidental light on the 
path of the wayfarer, so this throws a 
prophetic ray athwart our course. 

"And he made his grave with the 
wicked and with the rich in his death ; 
because he had done no violence, neither 
was any deceit found in his mouth." 
We turn from this eminently prophetic 
chapter of Isaiah to the event seven 
hundred years after as recorded by John 
in his nineteenth chapter, and we discover 
two rich men, Joseph, the wealthy aristo- 
crat of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, the 
opulent Sanhedrinist. After a hasty 
secret embalmment, they placed the body, 
not in potters field, not in any ordin- 
ary limestone cript, such as honeycomb 
Mount Olivet, but in the private garden 
of Joseph, the Eothschild of Arimathea, 
where, according to Matt, xxvii, "He 
laid it in his own new tomb." 

These rich men were wickedly timid. 
One of them may have been the 



THE PROPHETS OF GOT). 



rich young man who " went away 
sorrowful " from Jesus " because lie 
had great possessions." At ail events, 
they were cowardly in a good great 
cause, and this is wickedness before 
God. although prudence before man. 
Nevertheless, they had enough of fond 
memory for Him who " had done no 
violence" to inspire them to see that he 
had a decent interment (pity the friend- 
ship that never shows itself till after we 
are dead). And so it came to pass, through 
the maudlin sentiment of these aristo- 
crats, this incidental prophecy was ful- 
filled. 

Long might I stand here and show to 
you other prophesies of equal accuracy of 
accomplishment after lapse of centuries, 
but have only time to close with one con- 
tained in the one hundred and tenth 
Psalm. I call your attention to this one, 
above all others, because it was applied 
by Christ to Himself in a hot contest with 
the Pharisees, who disputed His divine 
Sonship. He had just silenced the 
Saducees, on the question of whose wife, 
in the resurrection, the woman should be 
who had had seven husbands. And now 
the Pharisees rush to the charge. While 
they were gathering Jesus asked, " What 
think ye of Christ ? Whose Son is He ? 
They replied, " the Son of David.'* He 
rejoined, " How then doth David in the 
Spirit call him Lord, saying (quoting 
from the one hundred and tenth Psalm), 
< The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on 
my right hand till I make thine enemies 
thy footstool ! 

IF DAVID THEX CALL HIVI LORD, HOW IS 
HE HIS SOX ? ' " 

This was a poser ! We read next verse : 



"And no man was able to answer him a 
word ; neither durst any man from that 
day forth ask him any more questions." 

This psalm, then, of David has the stamp 
of Christ himself, as to its prophetic Mes- 
sianic character. It is a psalm of power 
and of victory. 

It is a prophecy concerning the victories 
of Christ from beginning to end. It is 
applicable to no other character. It fits 
his person and mission as the atmosphere 
the earth, or the photosphere the sun. It 
begins mightily, continues grandly, ends 
triumphantly. 

Jehovah said to Adonai ; that is, the 
Father said to the Son, " Sit thou at my 
right hand till I make thine enemies thy 
foot-stool." This is the only use the 
enemies of God are to be turned to. Over 
all these enemies Adonai is to be supreme. 
It is through the Church this supremacy 
is to be secured. Jehovah sends "the 
rod of his strength out of Zion." When 
that sceptre of strength is revealed (and 
it is being more and more revealed day by 
day), his people shall be willingnesses, 
(according to the Hebrew), that is, cohorts 
with a will, who shall shine in the " beau- 
ties of holiness," like "Stars of morning 
dew drops which the sun impearls." Je- 
hovah is so determined on this, that he 
has settled it with an eternal oath and 
fixed Jesus as the King Priest forever, 
after the order of Melchizedek. This is 
the divine decree that ever has been 
fixed with inflexible immutability. All 
the operations of this and every other 
world are to bend to it. Omnipotence has 
undertaken its execution. The procla- 
mation has gone forth and- never can be 
recalled. 



424 



THE PROPHETS OF GOD. 



"O, may we hear the voice 

In mercy to us speak, 
And in our Priest we will rejoice. 

Thou great Melchizedek." 

To carry out this one high, immortal 
purpose, every force and fabric that stands 
in the way will be beaten down. 

Kings shall be stricken through, politi- 
cal chiefs subdued, organized evil swept 
away; infidels, sceptics, blasphemers, 
shall be vanquished and bound up in 
bundles and heaped together for destruc- 
tion. For "He shall judge among the 
heathen and till the places with dead 
bodies." So numerous will be the slain in 
this last great battle with Gog and Magog, 
that there will be none left to bury them. 
The victory will be final and complete, 
and then shall come the millennial reign 
of righteousness and truth. The Con- 
queror Christ shall slake his thirst from 
the hidden stream that flows from God. 
• k He shall drink of the brook by the way ; 
therefore, shall he lift up the head." 

There have been many battles in the 
the world. There shall be many more ; 
but they all prepare for and converge to- 
ward this great final triumph. Then shall 
be established " the Kingdom that shall 
never be moved " We see, we hear, we 
feel it coming ; its heraldic notes are in 
the air. The harbingers of science, art. 
literature, philosophy, logic, law and 
religion all point to it. He who has 
eyes may see it moving steadily toward 
us, divinely beautiful, divinely terrible. 
Make way in your hearts, and let it come 
to you. If it is admitted, it will sweep 
you up to glory. If it is neglected or re- 
jected, it will sweep you down to de- 
struction. This is the only poAver on 
earth that has no end. If, then, you want 



life, riches, beauty and glory that never 
fail, here is your opportunity, and your 
only opportunity. 

And now, to sum up the case, we find 
we have twelve (and if there were time, 
we could easily multiply these by twice 
twelve more) minute, circumstantial, pro- 
phetic descriptions concerning Christ, all 
fulfilled to the letter, as well as the spirit, 
with precision. 

1. The promised seed of God. 

2. The Shiloh of Jacob. 

3. The Redeemer of Job. 

4. The precise place where Christ 
should be born, foretold by Micah. 

5. The exact time when He should be 
slain, announced by Daniel. 

6. The accurate description of His life- 
work, by David. 

7. The genuine and general personal as- 
pect of Jesus, by Isaiah. 

8. The veritable portrait of the sar- 
castic group around the Cross on ( Calvary, 
by David. 

9. The actual manner of His death, by 
David. 

10. The minute manner of the disposal 
of His raiment, by David. 

11. The positive manner of His burial, 
by David. 

12. The great battle now coming rap- 
idly to a crisis, and the final complete and 
glorious victory, by David. 

And not one of these prophesies was 
written after the days of Daniel. Daniel's 
was the latest, 538 years before Christ ; 
Micah' s was the next latest, 710 years be- 
fore Christ; Isaiah's was the next, 712 
before Christ ;. David's was the next, 1,000 
years before Christ; Job's was the next, 
1,520 years before Christ ; Jacob's was the 
next, 1689 years before Christ; Jeho- 



THE PROPHETS OF GOD. 



425 



vah's was the next, 4,000 years before 
Christ. 

Thus, all of them were uttered between 
538 and 4000 years before the event oc- 
curred. 

We saw. as we passed, that these 
prophesies are "minute and circumstan- 
tial descriptions."* But Anti-Christ says: 
" Whenever and wherever you' find a book 
that contains any minute and circumstan- 
tial description of a future historical event, 
you may rest assured that the book was 
written after the event/" Therefore, we 
'may rest assured that the books of Gene- 
sis, and Job. and Pslams, and Isaiah, and 
Micah, in which these minute and 
circumstantial prophetic descriptions are 
found, were written after the birth of 
Christ. That is, books that all people 
who know the barest rudiments of history 
know were written at intervals between 
538 aud 4,000 years before Christ's birth, 
were all written after His birth. This is 
the only logical conclusion of Anti-Christ, 
from the premises which he, evidently 
with special care, wrote down as pivotal 
and fundamental. 

Surely ! Surely ! ! it is no wonder that 
a man stupid enough to place himself in 
such an absurd position is an opposer of 
Christianity and of the Church. All Anti- 
christs are the quintessence of doltish 



stupidity. But you will have to travel 
far, and look long, before you can find such 
an example of it as we have before us. I 
am therefore (however sorrowfully), forced 
to brand this onslaught on the prophets of 
God as containing the mammoth lie of 
the ages, and I repel it as unworthy the 
notice of any noble and devout mind. I 
should never think of noticing it, but for 
the fact that I am on the watch tower and 
cannot see innocents slaughtered by the 
wholesale without blowing the trumpet. 
That Anti-Christ shall attempt to answer 
me I do not expect. He is shrewd enough 
to know better than to try it. What 
would a fellow you catch in your garden 
stealing your cherries and breaking down 
your trees answer you back for ? He has 
nothing to answer you with. His best 
and only safe policy is to keep quiet, get 
down the tree as easily as possible and 
run away. This is what the enemy is 
doing. His sermons have been much less 
blasphemous of late. His rebel guns are 
being silenced one by one ; and, with God's 
help, I propose to rake him, fore and aft, 
with the grape and canister of heaven 
till they are all silenced. 

And now may our Almighty Father per- 
fect us in the knowledge and love of our 
Saviour, for truly "To Him give all the 
prophets witness." 



The Old Testament* 



"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.' 1 — II. Timothy hi: 16. 



T is now time to gather up the leading 
facts we have used during this repulse. 
We have become confirmed in the fact 
that we have a Divine Revelation, by 
word as well as by works, and that this 
Revelation is gradual and progressive. 
We have seen more clearly that the Elo- 
him, the Jehovah, spake and acted through 
Moses for the general benefit of mankind. 
We have perceived that this same Jeho- 
vah spake through the sacred symbols of 
cloud and fire, Ark of Covenant and Tab- 
ernacle of Prefiguration, that an enlarged 
vision was gradually given through Sam- 
uel and other prophets, and especially 
through King David and Solomon ; that 
this vision was so strong and clear that 
the prophets plainly and powerfully fore- 
told the coming of the Messiah ; that they 
were so minute and circumstantial that 
they portrayed His person and work, and 
actually foretold hundreds of years ahead 
the time and the place of His advent; 
that they were so particular that they de- 
scribed the manner of His death, the dis- 
position of His raiment, and the way He 
should be buried ; that, indeed, the whole 
of the old dispensation was a gradual, 
scientific and progressive unfolding of the 
new dispensation; that all the material 
and temporal symbolisms of that dispen- 
sation were constantly foretokening and 
prefiguring the Son of God, the Holy 
Spirit of God, and the Church of God ; 
and that, therefore, these symbolisms 
were given by God ; that, consequently, 
they are divine, and must be defended and 



cherished as the preparatives for and con- 
veyancers of the plans, purposes and love 
of God. 

Having repulsed Anti-Christ at every 
vital point of attack all along the line, 
we now discover him doubling on his 
tracks, like a closely pursued fox, and 
trying to whelm this stately procession 
to victory under an avalanche of vain 
words on the Pentateuch, Jonah, Daniel, 
Solomon's Song, and, indeed, the Old 
Testament generally. He does not argue 
or prove anything. Indeed, he seems to 
take it for granted he needs not to 
prove his assertions. He requires only to 
state his assumption, and that is all the 
proof that is necessary. He seeks, in 
this illegitimate and arbitrary way, to re- 
duce some of the important parts of the 
Word of God to the low level of the ordi- 
nary drama and novel. He represents 
the Pentateuch as a forgery, <; written 
into a book about the year 621 B. C." by 
priests and prophets. He offers no proof 
of this whatever, only that sceptics, and 
rationalists, and infidels, like himself, say 
so. That is all. He does not name the 
author who did write it at that late date. 
A very good reason he had for that, which 
is, it was not originally written then. I 
challenge any one to give the name of the 
author of a single book of the Bible ex- 
cept the name that the book now bears. 
It is easy to say that these anthors of the 
Sacred Scriptures were not the authors. 
Any assuming man can do that. If I 
had no regard for truth, I could do it my- 



428 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



self ; and I could say the same thing about 
other books. I could say Homer was not 
written by Homer, nor Virgil by Virgil, 
nor the Commentaries of Caesar by Caesar, 
and that they were written at a much 
later date. 

Well, suppose I did make such a start- 
ling statement ; would not every literary 
man in this house demand, rightfully, of 
me, who did write these ancient works, 
and, if I could give no answer, conclude I 
am a detracting, disturbing impostor ? 
And you would have a perfect right to so 
decide under these circumstances. And 
yet that is exactly what Anti-Christ and 
all the destructive critics do concerning 
the Scriptures. They say Job did not 
write Job, and David did not write his 
Psalms, and Jonah did not write Jonah, 
and Moses did not write the Pentateuch. 
Now, then, I demand, if that be so, who 
did write these books ? and, lo ! there is 
not a single answer from even one of the 
whole battalion of destructive Bible- 
rippers. This is not only presumptive 
evidence, but demonstrative proof, that 
these men know not whereof they affirm. 
They know what they are assuming, and 
guessing, and dogmatizing, but they do 
not, and cannot, demonstrate a single as- 
sumption, guess or dogmatization. It is 
speculation at beginning, middle and end — 
only speculation. And it would be a 
small matter if it were innocent specula- 
tion ; but it is the most culpable kind of 
speculation that can occupy the human 
mind or flow from the human tongue, be- 
cause it destroys the faith ; and when 
once you have ruined faith in God and in 
His Holy Word, you have opened the 
flood-gates of every disastrous iniquity. 

Suppose a number of fanatics should go 



forth into the world proclaiming that men 
should not believe in farming, navigating, 
commerce, education and civilization, what 
would happen if people generally were fool- 
ish enough to believe them? Why, pov- 
erty, failure and destruction would over- 
take, speedily, every farmer, navigator, 
merchant and student who adopted their 
destructive negativities. But here we have 
a man who keeps preaching that men 
should not believe in the Pentateuch, nor 
in prophecy, nor in Psalmody, nor in Bible 
history as presented to us. And what must 
follow ? One result, and that is spiritual 
poverty, failure and destruction to every 
one who believes him. 

For as the earth produces food only in 
answer to the practical faith of the hus- 
bandman, so the Bible produces spirituality 
only in answer to the practical faith of 
the believer. Take away that faith, re- 
place it with unbelief, inactivity and ster- 
ility of soul, and consequent ruin must 
succeed as inevitably as general and prac- 
tical unbelief in farming would produce 
starvation by famine. It is for this 
reason only, that I stand here to save 
this city from the dread results of Anti- 
Scriptual teaching, by repelling the 
assaults of Anti-Christ. 

And now I propose to repulse his attack 
in his last two sermons on the books of 
the Old Testament. I need not specify 
them by name, for, indeed, he tries 
to doom almost all of them to a much 
later date of authorship than belongs to 
them. 

According to him, they were, for the 
most part, written about the time of Ezra 
and Nehemiah, and after. As a rule, he 
fixes them about the Babylonish captivity, 
and after. 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



429 



Now I want you to closely follow me, 
and see tlie fallacious absurdity of sucli 
an outrage as this, as seen in the follow- 
ing important demonstrative and con- 
clusive facts: 

Fact No. 1. In a declining age of a 
people (and especially in an age of 
wreckage) they never inaugurate a new 
era in literature. Please find me a nation 
on the face of the earth that has com- 
menced a new age of literature during its 
disintegration. You know history ; look 
back and out over the world, and see if 
you can find any. Ah ! sirs, your know- 
ledge of human history teaches you that 
Egyptians, Persians, Eomans, English, 
Greeks, Chinese, Hindoos and every other 
people inaugurated their great literary 
eras either when they were rising to their 
zenith or about the time they attained it. 
Now, this broad, world-wide fact harmon- 
izes precisely with the rise and progress of 
Ihe literary period in Israel, and, of itself, 
is sufficient to overthrow Anti-Christ's 
position. That period began with Moses, 
after the people under his leadership had 
emerged from slavery. It continued 
during the development of the nation 
under Joshua and the judges. It flushed 
out in greater strength under Samuel, 
until it reached its culmination of poetic 
and proverbial glory under David and 
Solomon. 

The golden era of the empire, under 
David and Solomon, was therefore- the 
greatest literary age, just as the record 
demonstrates it to be. It was then First 
and Second Samuel were collaborated into 
their present form. It was then the 
psalms and proverbs and songs of Solo- 
mon and Ecclesiastes were born in all 
their rhythmic, axiomatic and sententious 



splendor. But after the schism set in un- 
der Jereboam; after, by the pressure of 
weakness through division, decline had be- 
gun, then Isaiah takes up his warning 
notes ; then Jeremiah pours forth his 
plaint ; then Ezekiel and the minor proph- 
ets take up the dolorous strain and wail 
out their warnings and woes — woes which 
were only relieved by the lustre that 
beamed reflexly, even then, from Calvary. 
You see at once how simple, how historic, 
how natural, all this is ; and you can easily 
perceive that any man, or men, who deny 
this natural, and yet spiritual, evolution of 
the literature of Israel does violence to 
the logic of literary events of nations 
generally, and to that of Israel particu- 
larly. 

Fact No. 2. According to every law of 
moral evidence, forgers and imposters are 
men of low moral and spiritual nature. 
I now want to ask the enemy, in your 
presence, were the Hebrew prophets such 
men ? He places the onus of the forgery 
of the books, at a later period than the 
Babylonish captivity, upon the prophets. 
Were they men that any analyst of his- 
tory would for a moment suspect of such 
deception ? They were the lights of Is- 
rael, the purest, holiest and best of Israel; 
and that means that they were the noblest 
and best in the world ! Eead their writ- 
ings ; see the lofty scorn of all meanness 
that pervades them ; see the dignified 
sense of righteousness and of the divine 
emnience that permeates their utter- 
ances. If ever men were pure in heart the 
Hebrew prophets were pure. Indeed, it 
was on account of purity they were able 
to know so much about God. It is the 
pure in heart who see Him. How, then, 
can any man, in the light of the day of 



430 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



Judgment, accuse these most sacred and 
most noble of all the sons of time of for- 
gery ? And such a forgery ! One may 
imagine a man. through impecuniosity, 
forging a note ; but here is a forgery for 
which there was no motive, even if the 
men had desired to commit such a crime. 
There is no evidence whatever in the fact 
that, because Hilkiah stumbled on a roll 
of the law in the temple crypt, that was 
therefore a forged law. It could have 
been there, and, indeed, naturally would 
be there (for that is where they kept, and 
keep still, sacred books in the East) for 
safe keeping during times of turmoil; but 
there is no evidence in that to prove that 
any of the contemporaneous prophets or 
priests wrote it, any more than there is 
evidence that because Luther found an 
old Bible in the monastry is proof that he 
wrote that Bible. We all know he did 
not write it, and we all know there is just 
as much evidence that Hilkiah did not 
write the books of Moses because he 
found them in the temple. Indeed, it is 
just the place we would expect him to find 
the Pentateuch. Such place, exactly, was 
the one where we know the original copy 
of the law was deposited by command of 
Moses, by the side of the Ark of the Cov- 
enant, within the vail (See Deut. xxxi : 26.) 
"Take this book of the law and put it by 
the side of the Ark of the Covenant of 
the Lord your God, that it may be there 
for a witness against thee." 

Instead, then, of Hilkiah's discovery of 
the Book of the Law in a secret part of the 
temple being evidence of forgery, it is the 
strongest sort of evidence of the authen- 
ticity, genuineness and venerable majesty 
of the sacred scroll that had come down 
from the days of Moses and Joshua. Why 



then, you ask, do men, who ought to know 
better, go about teaching such surrepti- 
tious fallacies ? I know of no way of ac- 
counting for it, except upon the Bible 
principle of the unmitigated depravity of 
human nature. Some men are born klep- 
tomaniacs, others are born with a thirst 
for human blood, and still others are born 
with an insatiable desire to mount the 
rostrum, or a tripod, and stigmatize well- 
established faith and institutions to make 
the groundlings wonder, gape, stare and 
pronounce them, at the expense of their 
eternal salvation, wonderous wise and 
learned ! ! The case in hand seems one of 
that kind. What else can be the motive ? 
What good can come by ripping up the 
Scriptures ? Whom is it going to save, 
instruct or inspire ? Whom is it going to 
elevate, dignify or enrich ? What pes- 
simist is it going to cheer ? What drunk- 
ard reform ? What miser cure ? What 
sinner renew ? Show me a man whom 
such slanderous deterioration of the Scrip- 
tures has helped, physically, mentally, 
morally or spiritually ! I can show you 
millions upon millions of men and women 
who are abject and struck through with 
the shafts of despair because they have re- 
jected or neglected the Bible! Surely, the 
slaughter is wide and deep enough, through 
the cruel and blinding agencies of the 
" World, the flesh and the devil," without 
the pulpit coming in to help them in their 
dark and dismal deeds. Such a pulpit is 
a moral monstrosity, over which demons 
gloat and angels weep, and through whose 
ministries, alas ! men and women, in the 
end, suffer the tortures of irremedial sor- 
row. 

But, to return, let us take up fact Xo. 3. 
That fact is this : That in literary men, as 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



431 



a rule, there is an inextinguishable and 
powerful desire to have their names as- 
sociated with the literary works of which 
they are the authors, and especially is this 
so where, as in the case of the Bible books, 
their works are superior in bringing bles- 
sings to their fellow-men. This is an in- 
contestible fact in regard to authorship. 
There is no man living now — there never 
has lived any man — who has written a 
work whose purpose has been for the 
general benefit of his race, but has had a 
desire to have his name associated with 
his work, except as in some such affair as 
the "Letters of Junius," where the cow- 
ardly writer was evidently afraid of vio- 
lent personal consequences. But there 
was no cause for any such fear on the part 
of the men who wrote the books of the 
Old Testament, and especially the books 
which are, in this instance, most traduced. 

Now, then, take this ineradicable prin- 
ciple, which we find universally rooted in 
human nature, and apply it to the case in 
hand. I affirm that if there had been, 
about the time of the Babylonish cap- 
tivity, either prophets or priests capable 
of writing such magnificent works as the 
five books of Moses, Job, Solomon's 
songs, or, indeed, any other book of the 
Bible, they, in the very nature of things, 
and from the very nature of human nature 
itself, would have appended their names 
to their works. They would have scorned 
to have forged the names of men who 
lived hundreds of years before and ap- 
pended them to literary honors which they 
had earned themselves. Do you - know 
any authors now who write standard 
histories of law, ceremony or religion, who 
do not insist on attaching their names ? 
You know that in this class of works it is 



the universal custom of men to acknowl- 
edge their writings, and that custom 
grows out of the inherent qualities of the 
human mind and heart. "He that doeth 
truth cometh to the light, " in this case, as 
in every other. 

It is therefore unthinkable to any man, 
who thinks fairly, and reads accurately, 
and observes closely, that good men of 
later dates wrote the books of the Old 
Testament, and committed forgery, to 
prevent their names being handed down 
to honorable immortality. A man might 
be induced to commit such a crime to 
immortalize himself ; but show me a man 
who ever committed such a crime to wrap 
himself in oblivion after doing a most 
arduous and noble task. This thing is 
not in human nature. It is not in human 
history. Indeed, the trend of human 
nature is altogether in an opposite direc- 
tion. I have known men who have com- 
mitted plagiarism, that is, stolen other 
men's literary productions and palmed 
them off as their own. Such a sin is not 
infrequent. But where, among authors, 
ancient or modern, can we find a man who 
wrote a superior and magnificent work, 
and then said it was written by some 
other man who lived hundreds of years 
before him ? 

Take an illustration. Suppose any accom- 
plished gentleman in this city should write 
a most magnificent work on the "Con- 
stitutional Law of the United States " 
— a work which the whole country needs 
and adopts — and just as it is finished, 
he takes it to his church and' hides it in 
a corner of the chancel, and when the 
sexton or minister finds it by accident, 
and recognizes his handwriting, and 
charges him with the high honor of its 



432 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



authorship, he stands up and says, " ~No, 
I did not write that book. George 
Washington wrote it, or John Adams, 
or Thomas Jefferson wrote it." I ask, 
is there a man in this house, capable of 
thinking, who could for a moment sup- 
pose any man could do such a thing as 
that ? It would be an injustice to him- 
self, to his family, and to his generation. 
But suppose, still further, that such a 
competent and honorable gentleman did 
commit such an unheard of fraud, who 
would believe him ? His handwriting is 
there, and George Washington's hand- 
writing is not there, and John Adams's 
handwriting is not there, and Thomas 
Jefferson's handwriting is not there. 
But his handwriting is there. Besides, 
the writings of these patriotic fathers are 
all well known, and who could be brought 
to believe that a great work on constitu- 
tional law of this commonwealth was 
written by either of them, and only dis- 
covered at this late date ? If such a 
palpable forgery could not be committed 
by any man in these times without detec- 
tion, how could it be committed in those 
times ? The mere statement of such an 
absurdity is ample refutation. 

These three facts, just set before you, 
demonstrate : 

1st. That the writing of the books of 
the Bible at a much later date than they 
are generally taken to have been written 
was a historic impossibility. 

2nd. That it was a moral impossi- 
bility. 

3rd. That it was a mental, physi- 
cal and circumstantial impossibility. 

These three facts overthrow utterly the 
positions taken by the destructive skeptics 



in general, and by Auti-Christ in parti- 
cular. And there are many other con- 
siderations, external and internal, which 
might (did time permit) be given to de- 
monstrably prove that, substantially, the 
Bible books were composed about the time 
and by the men they claim to have com- 
posed them. It is true, that in the book 
of Genesis there are several documents 
which are used by the author in com- 
piling and in the elaboration of his 
majestic theme. But there is nothing in 
the original records thus compiled which 
permits the assertion of the false Higher 
Critics. Ther$ is not a single verse of 
Genesis that indicates the book to have a 
recent origin. On the contrary, the inter- 
nal evidence of the whole book proves, 
conclusively, that it must have been of 
very remote origin. 

Special application must be given to 
the mastery of a specific science, if ever 
knowledge approximates even complete- 
ness in regard to that science. The 
student must not only study, but, if he 
succeed, he must trace the laws of ap- 
proach, penetration and analysis, equa- 
tions and extensions, perhaps with hun- 
dreds and thousands of differentiations 
and modifications, before he is fit to pass 
a judgment in regard to the science which 
will be of permanent practical benefit to 
mankind. 

Now, then, I want you to take this law 
of the study of specifics and apply it to 
the question in hand. In doing so, take 
into consideration that every science has 
its own particular laws by which it must 
be investigated. Every science has laws 
peculiarly its own, and must be studied 
in the light of those laws. The science 
of theology as set forth in the books of 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



433 



the Bible is no exception. It has its laws, 
and by its laws it must be judged. If 
any other laws are applied, its secret and 
holy workings are sure to be misunder- 
stood. Misconceptions, false conclusions, 
erroneous deductions, are sure to be 
reached by the man who approaches its 
study without the proper equipment. 

What is that equipment ? 

First of all, a spiritual nature. The 
Bible is not a chronological book, al- 
though it has chronology in it. It is not 
an astronomical book, although it refers 
to the stars. It is not a physiological 
book, notwithstanding that it treats of 
physiology. It is not even a philosophi- 
cal book, although it has much philo- 
sophy in it. It touches more or less 
upon almost every secular science, and 
yet it refuses to be interpreted by the 
laws of any of them. It has a realm of 
its own, reaching far beyond and rising 
far above every other realm. And that 
realm is the spiritual realm. It, therefore, 
must be investigated by the laws that 
belong to its own realm. Those laws are 
spiritual laws. Hence, only a spiritual 
nature can discern them and apply them. 
" The carnal mind is enmity against 
God." The spiritual mind discerneth 
the things of the spirit. Therefore, the 
first requisite to properly judge the real 
character of the books of the Bible is a 
spiritual judgment. " The natural man 
discerneth not the things of the spirit,- for 
they are foolishness unto him ; neither 
can he know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned. But he that is 
spiritual judgeth all things." (I. Cor. ii. : 
13, 14.) That is all spiritual things. The 
biologist cannot judge of geology ; the 
geologist cannot judge of biology, al- 



though each may be supreme in his own 
sphere. So the naturalist cannot judge of 
the Bible, as the Biblicist cannot judge of 
naturalism. They are different spheres 
and require different faculties. The Bible, 
being a spiritual book, requires spiritual 
faculties to interpret it. As the man of 
spiritual nature ranges through the Bible, 
he sees spiritual gems on every page — 
gems beneath gems, gems above gems, 
beauties upon beauties. The natural man, 
ranging over the same ground, sees noth- 
ing but sterility, contradictions and folly. 
Spirituality, therefore, is the first equip- 
ment necessary to understand the loveli- 
ness, coherency and power of the Scrip- 
tures. The second part of the equipment 
flows from the first, and that is a per- 
formance of the divine will as revealed in 
the scriptures. " If any man (said Jesus) 
will do my will, he shall know of the 
doctrine whether it be of God, or whether 
I speak of myself." Here it all is in 
small compass — a finite, spiritual nature, 
doing an infinite, spiritual will. This is a 
Macedonian shield against all ravages of 
skepticism. It is a perfect protection 
against every assailant. The personal 
knowledge that comes into a man's life 
through spirituality of nature and action 
becomes a weapon that no gainsayer can 
beat down or break up. From what has 
been said, it is surely evident that the 
only competent critic of a spiritual book 
is a spiritual critic — not a literary critic, 
not a rationalistic critic, not even a 
philosophical critic, but a spiritual critic. 

Nor is the destructive wing of the 
higher critics a spiritual wing. What 
good have they done ? What souls have 
they saved ? What lives have they 
elevated and inspired ? They are not the 



434 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



men that do this kind of work, and, there- 
fore, it is an impertinence of them to pre- 
sume to sit in judgment on a spiritual 
book. They are no more competent to do 
that than is a mere farmer competent to 
sit in judgment on a system of astronomy. 
It is outside of his range. And the Bible 
is outside the range of any class of men 
who are unspiritnal in their experience, 



and merely secular and scientific in their 
actions. 

The grand old Bible, therefore, is safe ; 
Anti-Christ is routed, and we rely, with 
the utmost composure, on our text, " All 
Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God." 

And now may that good God who in- 
spired the Scriptures inspire us mightily. 



The Theologians* 



"Ye search the Scriptures." — John v: 39 (R. V.). 



THESE are the words of our Saviour, 
to the Jews then, to us now. 
" Ereunate tas graphas " is the 
Greek ; " Scrutamini Scripturas," the 
Latin ; " Suchet in der Schift," the Ger- 
man. They all signify the same thing — 
examine, scrutinize, test, seek, search. 

The man who wants astronomy ex- 
amines the sky. 

The man who desires geology scrutin- 
izes the earth. 

He who wishes science tests evidence ; 
he who yearns for wealth seeks for 
money ; but he who pants for everlasting 
life searches the Scriptures. Hence the 
Saviour said, " Ereunate tas graphas " 
(literally), " Ye search the Scriptures," 
and added " because ye think that in 
them ye have eternal life, and these are 
they which bear witness of me, and ye 
will not come to me that ye may have 
life," the evident meaning being : Ye 
Jews to whom I am speaking search 
the Scriptures because ye think by doing 
so ye shall gain eternal life. But whilst 
it is important ye should examine the 
Scriptures, since they bear witness of me, 
yet that is not sufficient. I am the life ; 
the Scriptures only reveal me. Ye need 
to come to me for life ; but this ye do 
not, " for ye will not come to me that ye 
might have life." For the last seven 
Sabbath evenings we have been studying 
the majesty and glory of the Scriptures, 
and of Scripture writers. We have seen 
their consistency, their coherence, their 
deep, gradual and philosophical growth, 



unimpeachable genuineness, lofty author- 
ity and magnificent design. But although 
clearly, as beneath the rays of the sun, we 
see all this and much more, yet, if we 
stop here, we cannot be saved. The 
Scriptures are conveyancers ; but they 
are not the substance conveyed. They 
are revelations ; but they are not the 
essence revealed. That substance, that 
essence, is the Son of God. In Him is 
eternal life. A man may have all these 
Scriptures, from Genesis to Kevelation, 
in his head, and be only a fossil in his 
heart. But if the Scriptures have 
been successful in planting Christ in 
his heart, then he has lustrous vitality. 
" In Him (Christ) was life, and the life 
was the light of men." We cannot know 
the Christ without the Scriptures ; but we 
may know the Scriptures and not know 
the Christ. Hence it is, that on this 
Christmas Sunday night I want to go 
beneath the letter and grasp the life. 

I want to bring forth the substantial 
treasure. 

I want you to take that treasure for 
yourselves, to be your very own. I want 
you to live in it, die in it, be lifted by 
it, and borne on with it. I want you 
withal to take it intelligently, so that you 
shall be able to give " every man a reason 
for the hope that is in you." 

I therefore propose a display and a re- 
pulse at the same time — a display of the 
glory of the Scriptures, because the 
Christ is, in an especially eminent 
manner, in them j and a repulse of Anti- 



436 



THE THEOLOGIANS. 



Christ from every false, dangerous and 
blasphemous position so arrogantly and 
arbitrarily assumed. This, by the divine 
blessing, I hope to accomplish under 
these three heads : 

1. That Christ proved to the theolo- 
gians the authenticity, genuineness and 
divinity of the Old Testament Scriptures 
by quoting from them, and by associating 
in transfiguring splendor with the legal 
and prophetic representatives of them. 

2. That this Christ, through these 
Scriptures and the theologians, has ac- 
complished the grandest physical, scien- 
tific and intellectual achievements that 
have been wrought out anywhere, at any 
time, among men. 

3. That this same Christ, through these 
same Scriptures, and these same theolo- 
gians, has brought to pass, is bringing to 
pass, and will bring to pass, the most 
efficient and sufficient spiritual personal 
accomplishments that ever have been, or 
ever are to be wrought out, either in or 
by the human race. 

1. Then notice that the Son of God has 
vindicated the genuineness of the author- 
ship and divinity of the Old Testament by 
quoting from it, and by associating with 
its representatives. 

The Son of God was holy, harmless, 
undefiled and " higher than the heavens." 
He hated sin with the raging scorn of a 
burning hatred. He could see sin with 
the seraph eye of an infinite observer. 
He came to take away sin. This was His 
mission. How, then, can you conceive of 
an all-seeing, infinite being,- such as Jesus, 
quoting a forgery as authority on divine 
affairs ? 

And yet that is what He does if the 
Old Testament Scriptures are forgeries. 



In Matt, iv, 4, we discover Him quot- 
ing from Deut. viii., 3, and flinging it like 
a lance at the baffled tempter : " It is writ- 
ten man shall not live by bread alone, but 
by every word that proceecleth out of the 
mouth of God." 

In Matt, iv., 7, we find him quoting 
from Deut. vi. 16, and turning it into a 
mighty spear thrust to transfix the 
tempter : " It is written thou shalt not 
tempt the Lord thy God." 

In Matt, xi, 10, we discover Him quot- 
ing from Mai. iii., 1 : " Behold I send my 
messenger before thy face, who shall pre- 
pare thy way before thee ? " 

In Matt, xxi, 13, He quotes from Isa. 
lvi., 7 : " My house shall be called a house 
of prayer," and adds, " but ye have made 
it a den of thieves." 

In Matt, xxvi, 31. He quotes from 
Zech. xiii, 7 : " I will smite the shepherd, 
and the sheep of the flock shall be 
scattered." 

In Luke xx, 17, He quotes from Psa. 
cxviii, 22 : " The stone which the builders 
rejected, the same is become the head of 
the corner." 

Quotations might be named to a much 
greater extent, all proving the same pro- 
position, that he recognized the books of 
the Old Testament as genuine in author- 
ship and divine in authority, and then, to 
cap the climax ; we find Him, in Luke 
xxvi, 44, setting His seal to the Old Testa- 
ment Books by saying," All things must 
be fulfilled which were written in the 
law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in 
the Psalms concerning me." Here comes 
the pertinent question: Could such a 
being as the Christ, in His infinite innoc- 
ence — the Christ who came to take away 
the sin of the world ; who knew all that 



THE THEOLOGIANS. 



437 



had been written, and who wrote it ; 
who could with a glance sift the litera- 
ture of the Ages — is it possible that 
such a being would have referred to 
forgeries as documental evidences of. the 
divinity of His mission ? Ah ! friends, 
if they had been the forgeries Anti-Christ 
would make them, He would have de- 
nounced them as worthy of the seven-fold 
thunderous woes with which He blasted 
the Pharisees and Scribes. 

But not only by attesting the books of 
the Old Testament thus, but also by ap- 
pearing amid the mysterious splendors of 
the transfiguration with Moses, repre- 
sentative of the law, and Elijah, repre- 
sentative of the prophets, he sets His 
official seal of recognition upon the Old 
Testament. Could He ever have set such 
a seal to a lie — a deception and a forgery ? 
Every one of you sees the impertinent 
infidelity of attributing such a crime to 
the Son of God. In addition to all we 
have seen, and over all we have said, re- 
garding the Old Testament, waves the 
plume of the New. The New did not 
come to destroy the Old, but to fulfil it. 

The Old is as important to the author- 
ity of the New as the roots of an oak are 
to the trunk and the branches. This is 
the natural, philosophical and practical 
relation of the two. The one is the 
organic complement of the other. The 
Christ sustains this position by all he 
said and did. This sustentation is of 
itself infinite, and therefore absolute evid- 
ence, and through it Anti-Christ is over- 
thrown. 

2. Take our next proposition : This 
Christ, through these Scriptures, Old and 
New, has accomplished the grandest 
scientific and intellectual achievements 



that have been wrought out anywhere at 
any time among men. If I can demon- 
strate this proposition the demonstration 
will bury utterly the recent slanderous 
and libelous assertions of Anti-Christ. 
In his last sermon he says, " Ignorance 
is the only thing theologians are not 
afraid of. The defenders of the faith 
never dream of defending the faith against 
ignorance. Their great enemies are 
knowledge, scholarship, facts and truth." 
All true theologians are with Christ. He 
is with them. This, therefore, is an 
assault on both. They work together — 
He in them, they in Him. His cause is 
theirs, theirs His. Therefore, if I prove 
my proposition, I defend Him and them, 
and entomb Anti-Christ at the same time. 

Now for the demonstration : Anti-Christ 
says, "Ignorance is the only thing theo- 
logians are not afraid of.'- This is an aw- 
ful thing to say about men who ever have 
proved the best friends of education. The 
theologians have established the leading 
educational institutions on the earth. Who 
established Yale and Harvard ? The theo- 
logians ! Who established about $100,- 
000,000 worth of schools and colleges and 
universities inside the limits of the Meth- 
odist denomination ? The theologians ! 
Who established the universities, for the 
most part, of other denominations — the 
Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Episcopalian, 
the Boman Catholic — who? The theolo- 
gians ! 

Who founded the great universities of 
Berlin, and of Cambridge, and of Oxford, 
and the other mighty educational institu- 
tions of continental and insular Europe ? 
The theologians ! Who are founding now, 
in Australia, and in India, and in China, 
and in Japan, and in Mexico, and in Bra- 



438 



THE THEOLOGIANS. 



zilj and in every quarter of the world, 
linguistic schools, scientific schools — all 
kinds of schools and colleges ? The theo- 
logians ! And who contributes to these 
schools, by pen and voice, and purse and 
patronage ? The theologians ! And yet, in 
the light of these indisputable facts, here is 
a man who has the unfairness to say, " The 
great enemies (of theologians) are knowl- 
edge, scholarship, facts and truth." So, 
then, they are spending their time, money, 
influence, to found and cherish these great 
foes ! They are intent on establish- 
ing and supporting these great enemies ! ! 
They are giving their lives and fortunes for 
the propagation and glory of their great 
enimies ! ! ! "We are now, as a denomina- 
tion, straining every resource to raise ten 
millions to found a university in the Cap- 
ital of this Commonwealth. But, as theo- 
logians, we are putting forth this great 
financial effort to found and support what 
we reckon our great enemies ! ! ! ! Oh, stars 
of heaven ! moon of night, sun of day ! 
have your beams ever fallen on a man 
who told a greater lie for a viler pur- 
pose ? ? '? Xow, we will take a still wider 
range and assert that out of these institu- 
tions founded, encouraged and supported 
by the theologians have come the great 
scholars who have done great things for the 
world — the great geographers who have 
made maps, the cosmographers who have 
gone on exploring expeditions (Columbus 
himself was educated in the Christian uni- 
versity of Pavia ); the great geologists who 
have read the lithic tablets of the earth ; 
the mighty astronomers who have swept 
with their telescopes the golden galaxies 
of the skies ; the efficient physiographists 
who have minutely portrayed the features 
of oceans, seas, rivers, continents ; the 



analytic anatomists who have finely dis- 
sected vegetable, animal and human bodies; 
the powerful metaphysicians who have 
studied, weighed, balanced, described the 
ever expansive faculties of the human 
mind ; the penetrating biologists who hare 
cut their way into the hidden oclylic, mag- 
netic life force itself: the physiologists 
who have carved their mysterious path 
into the organs and functions of plants 
and animals ; the sage philosophers who 
have ploughed their way into the realms of 
wisdom in actual usage, and have brought 
forth the causes, the reasons, the powers 
and laws of beings and of things ; the 
mighty and marvelous mechanicians who 
have produced practical and benevolent 
marvels, more wonderous by far than those 
ever fabled in the revelling imagination of 
mythologists : the steam engine, with its 
wheels of thunder and banners of flame ; 
the telegraph with its subtle whispering 
of head to head and heart to heart in five 
continents : the telephone, speaking its 
messages from street to street, from home 
to home, from city to city : the electric 
motor sending its hidden power into lamp, 
and car. and mansion ; and the thousands 
upon thousands of other modern improve- 
ments that are helping to make this earth 
the vestibule of heaven — that are lifting- 
human beings up ; that are labor-saving 
and wealth-producing ; that are bringing, 
rapidly, educated human beings into close 
mechanical kinship with the great Builder 
of the skies. Where did all these mod- 
ern scientific products come from ? Where 
did they originate ? In idolatrous Africa ? 
In Confucian China? In the Buddhistic 
Orient ? In Brahminical India ? In Mo- 
hammedan Asia ? In Shintooistic Japan ? 
The merest historic child present knows 



THE THEOLOGIANS. 



439 



that not one of these grand, great and 
glorious developments of knowledge orig- 
inated, and grew outside the bounds of 
Christendom. The theologians instruct 
Christendom. They have made it ; they 
mould it; they inspire it; they lead it. 
Take them out of it, and there will be no 
Christendom. They are the heart and 
brain of the system. Therefore, the root 
factors, the radical forces that started the 
human mind in its great quest for knowl- 
edge were the theologians. There never 
has been — there is not now — a great natu- 
ralist, scientist, educationalist, nor me- 
chanician, but was made possible, but re- 
ceived his impetus, but w r as encouraged in 
his toils by Christ, through the theologians. 

Where did Harvey grow, who discov- 
ered the circulation of blood ? 

Where did Newton grow, who discov- 
ered the law of gravitation, and conse- 
quently the true theory of the movements 
of the worlds ? 

Where did Fulton and his helpers grow, 
who discovered and developed the latent 
power of steam ? 

Where did Morse grow, who discovered 
and utilized the power of electricity on 
the land ? 

Where did Cyrus W. Field grow, who 
laid a path for the giant beneath the 
ocean ? 

Where did Copernicus grow, who first 
succeeded in teaching the sphericity of 
the earth so that it was accepted by the 
world ? 

Where did Darwin grow, who developed 
the origin of species and the law of sur- 
vival of the fittest ? 

Where did Spencer grow, who has col- 
laborated and elaborated more on sociology 
than any other man ? 



Where did Edison grow, who, like a 
wizard, harnesses the electric giant to the 
burdens of mankind ? 

Each and every one of the great think- 
ers, the grand progressionists, were born, 
and reared, and educated under the shadow 
of some church spire, or cathedral dome, 
or university curriculum of Christendom. 

Here, then, is the most marvelous phe- 
nomenon of the century — a phenomenon 
which one could afford to smile at if it 
were not so poisonous, so deadly, so 
damnable and desolating, namely : That 
the leaders (the theologians) of this same 
Christendom are in such a stupid, insane 
condition that " ignorance is the only 
thing they are afraid of ; " that they are so 
far down they " never dream of defending 
the faith against ignorance, and their 
great enemies are knowledge, facts and 
truth." 

What patience are we expected to have 
with such a patent, palpable, time-long, 
world-wide falsehood as that ? The man 
who is either ignorant enough, or vile 
enough, to utter such a slanderous lie 
ought to hang his head in shame when 
he sets his foot on the pavement of a 
Christian city. 

Thus, then, we have, by incontroverti- 
ble facts, proved our second proposition ; 
namely, that our Saviour, through the 
Scriptures, working by the theologians, 
has brought to pass the grandest physi- 
cal, scientific and intellectual achieve- 
ments that have been wrought out any- 
where at any time among men. 

3. That proposition is this : That our 
blessed Saviour, through these same 
Scriptures, and the theologians who 
have properly preached them, has 
brought to pass is bringing to pass, 



440 



THE THEOLOGIANS. 



and will continue to bring to pass, 
the most excellent accomplishments that 
ever have been, or ever are to be. 
wrought out, either in or by the hu- 
man race. It is providential that I am 
in a position to speak authoritatively on 
this topic. I have spent time, money and 
toil in investigating, on the held, the 
other systems of religion. I, therefore, 
do not appear before you to tell what I 
have read or been told, bat what I have 
seen and know by personal scrutiny in 
all the great systems of religion. I went 
out to those fields after reading the lead- 
ing books that have recently been trans- 
lated and published on the glory of 
Brahmanism, Buddhism, Shintooism. Con- 
fucianism. Mohammedanism, etc. 

I went out as an impartial observer, 
seeking to find what Anti-Christ calls 
"the great heart agreements of the human 
race," and which (if it were not for the 
seriousness of the subject) he, ludicrously 
enough, asserts is "our divine authority 
in religion." After wading through the 
Veda of the Hindoos, and the Three 
Kings of the Chinese, and the Kojiki of 
the Japanese, and the Dharmapada of the 
Buddhists, and the Koran of the Moham- 
medans, and the Zencla Vesta of the Par- 
sees, by twenty years of persistent read- 
ing, and then, after spending the bulk of 
one year in personal introspection, apply- 
ing, comparing and contrasting all that 
I had read with what I could ob- 
serve among the living millions of 
heathen. I can assure you that I now 
am not without what might justly 
be called a fair opinion. There is noth- 
ing to be gained, and much to be lost, by 
misrepresenting, through prejudice, blind- 
ness or bigotry, any system of religion. 



And I am only too sorry that time does not 
permit me now to give you an analysis of 
the great religions of the earth, and an in- 
telligent comparison of them, one by one, 
with the Christian religion. This is a 
most intensely interesting work which I 
may take the opportunity of doing in the 
future ; for I have already written several 
thousand pages of manuscript on this sub- 
ject that have never either been spoken or 
printed. As for to-night, I have only time 
to speak, in the most concise manner, of 
the comparative merits of other religions 
and Christian it}*. I have not time to 
compare them one by one, and am there- 
fore forced to treat them in the aggregate, 
as contrasted with the religion of Jesus. 
That there is no good in them; that 
they have done no good; that they are 
doing no good; that they have no 
mission to fulfil, I am very far from be- 
lieving. I can collect out of heathen 
systems a very fair compendium on both 
civilization and morality. Indeed, I have 
already done so : but when I take all the 
good of Buddhism, which is the best and 
most popular of all heathen religions ; and 
all the good in Brahminism, which is the 
next best; and all the good in Shintooism ; 
and all the good in Parseeism ; and all 
the good in Mohammedanism, and pre- 
sent the collected sum beside the col- 
lected good in Christianity, justice, truth 
and fairness force me to say that the 
Christian sum is as far ahead of the 
heathen sum as the day is superior to the 
night : as the sun is superior to the 
moon. 

First. There is very little light in 
heathen religions ; the heathen are like 
men groping their way through a wilder- 
ness under a cloudy canopy of stars. 



THE THEOLOGIANS. 



441 



There are honest stragglers among them, 
but they are in darkness as to whence 
they have come, as to whither they are 
going, as to what shall be their goal. Not 
so with the Christian ; " The Sun of 
Righteousness has risen over him with 
healing in His wings." They who follow 
Christ do not " walk in darkness, but 
have the light of life" — light on every 
important practical, moral and spiritual 
issue. 

Second. There is little warmth in 
heathen religion. It is the boast of 
many critics, and especially of Anti- 
Christ, that the Golden Rule was known 
in natural religion before Christianity 
was born. Such boasts arise from ig- 
norance. I stand here, before the sift- 
ing eye of the press, and say that the 
Golden Rule is not known yet in any land 
where Christ and His Gospel are not re- 
ceived. I am well aware that Orientals 
have a rule like this, " Thou shalt not do 
to others that which thou dost not desire 
others to do to you," but is that the 
Golden Rule of Jesus ? Infinitely far from 
it ! ! His Golden Rule reads, " All things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do 
to you, do ye even so to them." (Matt. vii. : 
12.) You discern the difference. The one 
is negative; the other is positive. The 
one is satisfied with restraining evil ; the 
other is only satisfied with doing good. 
There is all the difference that obtains 
between the sterility of negativity and the 
affluent fruitfulness of positivity. The 
one is a mere negative law of stiff pro- 
prieties ; the other is a fountain of posi- 
tive productivity and love. Natural re- 
ligion is cold. Christian religion is warm ; 
love is its centre and its sun, " Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself" its verte- 



bral command ; for "on this hangs all the 
law of the prophets." 

Third. Naturalistic religion is stagnant; 
it is utterly unprogressive ; there is little, 
if any, improvability in it. The Chinese 
were as advanced in science and literature 
two thousand years ago as they are to-day. 
Not so with Christianity ; it is the soul of 
progress ; growth, is its watch-word ; ad- 
vance, is its Shibboleth ; and no man re- 
ceives Christ fully and honestly into his 
heart but from that moment begins to ad- 
vance in his life. The impulsive power 
of an expanding, new affection seizes him ; 
from that moment his motto is, "Ever 
on ! " The heights he attains are only 
pedestals from which he starts for loftier 
climbing and wider circles of action and 
observation. Is not this amply'illustrated 
before your eyes in the progress of the 
two most pronounced Christian nations on 
the earth, England and the United States ? 
Every purely Christian people grow mighty 
in even material resources. 

And these material resources are only 
symbolic of the still more valuable pro- 
gressions in and possessions of spiritual 
resources; possession of and progression 
in " love, peace, joy, gentleness, goodness, 
meekness, temperance, charity and. faith ; " 
possession of and progression in the hope 
of a heritage of " glory, honor, im- 
mortality and eternal life;" possession 
of and progression in a satisfying knowl- 
edge of the loving, redeeming and inspir- 
ing care of God, the Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost. Is not this enough ? Could 
we ask for more ? 

But, notwithstanding all this, it is pos- 
sible to find men who seek to destroy all 
that Christianity has done and is doing. 
To illustrate ; 



442 



THE THEOLOGIANS. 



There was once a statelier ship launched 
than any that ever sailed the seas. On 
she went, riding the billows, in the face of 
the storm, with a grandeur that surpassed 
all other craft. On, through every hurri- 
cane, she rode with a gallantry of which 
every seaman and passenger was proud. 
But alter she had safely sailed through 
many tempestuous storms toward her 
haven, lo, a passenger mutinied. He ac- 
cused the Captain as an arch-imposter. 
He attacked the passengers and crew like 
a tiger. He tried to tear up the chart 
and smash the compass. He went into 
the hold and began to hew up the hull. 
He started for the deck and hacked away 
at the masts and spars. He tried to tear 
the sails to tatters. He made a desperate 
effort to put out the furnaces. He did all 
this under the plea that the Captain was 
only a common man ; that the passengers 
and crew were ignorant; that the chart 
was not written when, where and by whom 
it was thought to be ; that the compass 
was a superstitious instrument ; that the 
wood and iron that conrposed the hull did 
not come from the forests and the mines 
people said they came from ; that the masts, 
spars and sails were framed in a different 
fashion from what the sailors thought ; 
that the furnaces produced artificial in- 
stead of natural heat, etc. And thus 
this man gored around at everybody and 
everything, like a maddened bull at a red 
bandanna held in the hand of a matadore. 
Nothing suited him aboard that ship. 
Everything in it was bad and everybody 
on it was worse. Finally, after great pa- 
tience and pity, one of the sailors sug- 
gested he had better quit his destructive- 
ness or get off the ship. No, he would 
stay aboard and make a new ship in the 



middle of the ocean, without anything to 
make it with. 

At length the same sailor followed him 
up, repairing the breeches he had made, 
and insisted on a suspension of the 
ruin of the ship, as all were at sea, and 
storms would naturally come. No, he was 
going to take asunder that ship Zion, in 
mid-ocean, and make a new one out of 
nothing. Seeing this meant death to all, 
the sailors and crew protested, and pro- 
posed to free the ship of him. And so 
we are here to-night to lift this man over- 
board and ship him into a little skiff of 
his own make called "The Critic." Here, 
men, give a hand ! There he goes over- 
board into a very small, leaky craft ; over- 
board from our mighty and majestic ves- 
sel ; overboard from our thoughts, faith 
and communion; overboard in a wild, 
wintry sea, without rudder, chart, com- 
pass, sails, fire or provisions. God pity 
him, for he would not pity either us or 
himself. Now he will experience a few 
of the results that follow the destruction- 
ist. Destruction he sowed, destruction he 
reaps. Meanwhile, with all parts of our 
ship well built and tested, with chart and 
compass intact, with body all sound, with 
masts and spars all in place, with sails all 
set to favoring gales, with furnaces all 
glowing with celestial fires, with Captain, 
crew and passengers all harmonious, happy 
and hopeful, with piers of peace and 
port of bliss gleaming ahead on the golden 
shore, where loved ones are landing, we 
are going to make a good voyage, and 
through the leadership of our chart (the 
Bible), our (crew the theologians), and 
our Captain (the Christ), have a tri- 
umphal " entrance ministered unto us into 
the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour," which in mercy, love and power, 
may he grant you all for His great Name's 
sake. Amen ! 



Sparks from Other Sermons by Dr* Brady in 
People's Temple* 



* * 

Do not look to any human being as a 
final example. Look to Christ, and the 
steady look will bring steady power. 

* * * 

Do not follow your own spirit in any- 
thing whatever. Follow the Holy Spirit 
of God, who comforts, teaches and guides, 
and you will always be useful, happy and 
safe. 

* * * 

Do not palliate your conscience by 
criticising those who are trying to do 
good. But go and do all the good you 
can yourself, and you will have no dis- 
position nor time to mind other peoples' 
business. 

* * * 

Do not be a narrow Christian, gauging 
every one and everything by your own 
notions. But be broad, brotherly, kind — 
remembering your Master has under- 
taken, by all kinds of methods, to save all 
kinds of men. 

* * * 

Do not permit any bad report, whether 
true or false, to make a gulf between you 
and your brethren. But go, rather, closer 
up to the weaker one, and win him closer 
to your Saviour. The worse anyone is, 
the more he needs your sympathy, love 
and prayer. Except in cases that clearly 
cannot be remedied, never deliver any one 
up to Satan. 



* * 

Be much in communion with God. Take 
in prayer everything to Him. When you 
receive a command in answer to fasting 
and prayer, follow it fearlessly to the 
end. " If God be for you, who can be 
against you ? " 

* * * 

Be not so anxious to appear to be a 
Christian as to be a Christian. Make 
sure that the heart is right before God, 
and words and deeds will take care of 
themselves. 

* * * 

Never be jealous of those who are more 
successful than yourself. But be thank- 
ful for such successful ones, and be glacl 
that they are your brethren. 

* * * 

In private life, prove even more courte- 
ous, kind and pleasant to those about you 
than in public. This principle, properly 
practiced, will make happier homes, hus- 
bands, wives, children, employers, ser- 
vants and citizens. 

* * * 

Resolve to do your full duty in sus- 
taining your church by attendance, praise, 
prayer, speech and giving. You will feel 
better by knowing you are enjoying what 
you yourself (and not somebody else) have 
paid for. 



444 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



Never lose sight of the central idea of 
Christianity, which is present personal 
self-denial for the sake of people now 
living. Make that idea the key-note of 
all yon plan, think, speak, do, and it will, 
in a short time, make yon mighty in 
usefulness, glorious in character and ex- 
alted in destiny. 

* * * 

Do not feel free to slacken your efforts 
for salvation of souls when the special 
revival is over. You are needed, and can 
be useful, in the every-day work of the 
Church. In such steady work, you can 
grow and make others grow all the year. 
The soul that makes a great spread in 
revival services, collapses, and then hides 
away till the next revival comes, is neither 
an honor to God nor a help to man. 

* * * 

Do not think of man when you speak, 
sing or pray in meeting. Think of your 
own heart and God, and He will soon give 
you power that will make man think of 
and be lifted by you. 

* * * 

If Boston is the intellectual center of 
America, People's Temple is the spiritual 
center of Boston. Then bring every lost, 
longing soul to this center for guidance to 
the happy center of this universe. 

* * * 

If each one of the three thousand five 
hundred souls that have professed con- 
version at this Temple's altars inside the 
last five years would save a soul a day for 
the next five years, the number of the 
saved would be equal to the population of 
the largest city in the world. 



If each one of you who have been con- 
verted and joined this Temple on pro- 
bation during the past two months would 
save a soul each month for one year, 
9,600 would be saved. Why not ? Some 
of you may save many more than one a 
month, if you set rightly about it. 

* * * 

Nobody ever backslides when seeking 
to save a soul. No one can do a more 
noble work than save a soul. " He that 
winneth souls is wise." 

* * * 

Everybody who is saved has the privi- 
lege of saving others. You cannot re- 
main saved yourself unless you seek to 
save others. If you do not desire to save 
others, your conversion was too superficial, 
and will not save you. 

* * * 

The best patriot is the best Christian 
No one can live for the best interests of 
his country who does not crown Christ. 

* * * 

The Stars and Stripes are glorious, but 
it is only as they move under the banner 
of Jesus they become permanently glori- 
ous. 

* * * 

Be a patriot, but do not make a 
Saviour of patriotism. If you do, the 
real Saviour will leave you to your fate in 
the hour of need, because you left Him in 
the hour of His visitation. If you leave 
Christ out now, how can you expect Him 
to take you in then ? 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



445 



Be not so anxious about other people's 
duty as about your own. The best way to 
induce others to do right is to do so 
yourself. 

* * * 

No one is so utterly happy as the lover 
of God. He has every reason to be, 
because everything works for his good. 

* * * 

There are many sins ; but the only sin 
for which any soul shall be lost is that of 
refusing to be saved. 

* * * 

The Methodist probationer is on trial 
not only before the Church, but before 
Almighty God. Eternal results depend 
upon fidelity. 

* * * 

Never be afraid to give up sin, and to 
continue giving it up. It is the only 
thing that can and must, if indulged in, 
bring irremediable ruin ! ! ! 

* * * 

Don't be afraid that a holy life will be 
a dull, care-worn, monotonous one. It 
is the only real, bright, happy and 
versatile life. This can be felt and seen, . 
however, only by those who enjoy it. 

* * * 

Great love should be shown by the ma- 
ture Christians to the babes in Christ. The 
older members should be nursing fathers 
and nursing mothers, nourishing the young 
"with the sincere milk of the "Word, that 
they may grow thereby." 



The following will enable probationers 
not only to stand firmly, but to grow 
grandly : 

1. Attendance upon your Sabbath 
preaching services, morning and evening. 

2. Attendance upon your Tuesday 
evening class-meeting. 

3. Attendance upon your Friday even- 
ing prayer-meeting. 

4. Eeading your Bible daily, and keep- 
ing good company always. 

4. Personal proving of yourself, watch- 
ing to shun all evil, to do all good, believ- 
ing and peris tent prayer, constant work for 
the conversion of sinners, and rejoicing 
before God. 

The soul that does these things will 
"never go back into the world," but will 
grow stronger, more useful and beautiful 
every hour. 

These rules of growth apply with equal 
force to the old members. When any 
member, old or new, ceases to use the 
means of growth he begins to decline and 
decay. 

* * * 

The man who lets summer steal away 
the religion he secures in winter is like a 
man who permits a burglar to steal his 
best treasures because the weather is 
warm. 

* * * 

A soldier in battle without a sword is 
better off than a Christian without a Bible. 
Get a Bible, if you have to sell your coat 
to buy one. 

* * * 

Every Christian should secure a good 
weekly religious paper. We commend the 
Methodist weeklies. 



446 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



When you go to class or prayer-meeting, 
resolve to make it lively by putting your 
life into it. But you must have life in 
you before you can put it into the meet- 
ing; this comes by fasting, prayer and 
holy living. Long speeches and prayers 
spoil a meeting. When you speak, say 
what you have to say in the fewest words. 
When you pray, ask what you want in the 
fewest sentences. When you sing, let it 
be in good time with the leader, but full 
of feeling and vigor. Never pray at any- 
body, nor speak at anybody in public. 
That is an insult. If you have anything 
against anyone, go, in the most tender, 
loving way, as soon as possible, and speak 
to and pray with the offender in private. 
If that does not succeed, take one or two 
more loving ones with you. If that does 
not succeed, and the person will not re- 
pent, and the sin is grievous, then, tell it 
to the Church through the pastor. If 
the transgressor will not heed these, 
then you can cast him off ; you have de- 
livered your soul. 

* * * 

Never say any bad about an absent per- 
son. Never carry or spread a story that 
might injure another. If you cannot say 
good of a fellow member, say nothing ex- 
cept in the order specified above. 

* * * 

Members of the same church ought to 
help each other in every possible manner, 
not only in religious affairs, but also in 
matters of work, trade and business. The 
world helps its own; why should not the 
Church ? 



No person, however, should lie down, so 
to speak, upon the church and look to it 
for secular support. The best Christian 
should be the best workman. His habits 
of application, sobriety and observation 
should make him such. A lazy person is 
a flabby Christian. Hard work is the 
parent of stout virtues. Soft indolence is 
the mother of scandalous vices. 

* * * 

Let nobody suppose that the better class 
of Christians are necessarily rich in this 
world's gain, and that the inferior class 
are necessarily poor. The man who 
makes such criteria the gauge of worth is 
a worldling, whatever he may profess. It 
is the man who throws all else away and 
grasps Christ with the naked hands of a 
giant that makes the superior Christian. 
This is where the New Testament and 
J ohn Wesley place superiority in Christi- 
anity, and not in social station, intellectual 
acquirement, or worldly acquisitions. The 
man who is most utterly abandoned to 
Christ is the best Christian ; and, in the 
best, this abandonment is absolute, with- 
out regard to consequences. 

* * * 

When you want power to overcome some 
great evil, don't go to fighting, but go to 
fasting and praying. When any great 
demon assails me, or when I want a great 
revival in the Temple, I go on bread and 
water and keep praying. This always de- 
feats the greatest devil and brings the 
greatest blessing. It never has failed yet, 
and I don't believe it ever can. There is 
other-world-depth in the words of Jesus 
corncerning exorcism of strong, tenacious 
demons : " This kind goeth not out but 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



447 



by prayer and fasting." The easiest and 
surest way to get a great victory over a 
big devil is to do as Jesus did in the 
Wilderness — fast and pray till Satan flees 
and God gives victory. Meanwhile, use 
the Word of God as Christ did ; this hews 
Satan and his hosts to pieces, when 
wielded with the hand of spiritual faith. 

* * * 

One of the greatest modern sources of 
intellectual dissipation and, alas ! also of 
spiritual death, is the secular Sunday 
newspaper. In view of the fact that 
spiritual life is incalculably more impor- 
tant than intellectual, the secular Sunday 
press should be suppressed ; it will, in the 
end, crush and curse any people among 
whom it obtains. Anything that secular- 
izes the Sabbath leads first to corruption 
and then to destruction. We can no more 
break one of God's commands and live 
well, than we can break one of our legs 
and walk well. 

* * * 

Child of God, when any kind of afflic- 
tion overtakes thee, let it not lead thee to 
nervousness, impatience or complaint, but 
to calm, complaisant joy, for " whom the 
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth 
every son whom he receiveth." Why? 
Because your loving Father wants to make 
His child brighter, sweeter and more use- 
ful by purifying and vitalizing affliction. 
Art thou now in some severe trial, suffer- 
ing some unmerited injury ? Eemember 
the oyster heals its wound with pearl. 
Remember the diamond-cutter hews most 
severely the most rjrecious gem. So take 
thy severest handling as but proof that 



Providence is preparing thee specially, 
first, for eminent usefulness here, and next, 
for distinguished glory hereafter. 

* * * 

Dost thou say, " Brother, sister, nothing 
have I to do worth doing ? " Ah ! think not 
so. Think of the newly saved souls in 
the Temple thou mayst build up into 
beautiful eternal characters. Think of the 
unsaved ones thou mayst bring for salva- 
tion to thy Lord. If thou wilt bestow 
thy labor on but one until he shines in the 
image of thy Master, that were worth to 
him and thee ten thousand thousand 
worlds. Look not at the indolent indiffer- 
ence of some barren professor, and then 
excuse thine own uselessness by quoting 
his. Such excuses will be blazed away 
with the first blasts of the trumpets of 
judgment. 

* * * 

The first step toward God is honesty, 
the second step toward God is honesty, the 
third step toward God is honesty — honesty 
in everything. God will never, can 
never, doom an honest soul. But, re- 
member, no honest soul can spurn His Son, 
berate His church, or make light of His 
Fatherhood. Wouldst thou be a time- 
server, a man-pleaser, a creature craving 
chiefly that good people, so-called, speak 
well of thee ? Then thou hast already 
" sold thy birth-right for a mess of pot- 
tage." Thou hast become unspiritual for 
the sake of social praise. Thou wilt 
always be a pigmy, die, and be soon for- 
gotten, except in the abodes of doom. 
Wouldst thou be an other-worlder ? Be 
it ! this was what thy Saviour was. This 
is what He would make thee ; and when 



448 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



He has made thee such, thou wilt make 
others like thyself, who will join thee 
and Him in singing, " My kingdom is 
not of this world." 

* * * 

The Ten Commandments are ten gates to 
shut us out from the stinging stabs of the 
scorpions of sin. Break through one of 
these gates and spring to the sin-ward 
side, and all the miseries of earth and hell 
shall soon have thy wretched soul for- 
ever. 

* * * 

The one command that Jesus gave on 
love is another door. It opens on the 
upward side of life. Break through it, 
pass through it, keep on the God ward 
side, and the happiness of heaven shall be 
so great within thee that the sorrows of 
time shall pass away amid the joys of its 
felicity. 

* * * 

There is a marriage in Satan's realm 
for which there is no divorce in this or 
any other life. That marriage is the 
wedlock of unrepentent sin and unmiti- 
gated suffering ; the two are fated by the 
flat of God to go eternally together. There 
is a marriage in the Saviour's domain 
equally indissoluble. That is the wedlock 
of untarnished purity and unsullied joy. 
No soul can be joyless that is truly pure, 
for purity is the fountain of uninter- 
ruptible delight. 

* * * 

Christian, wouldst thou be strong ? 
There are three practices will make 
thee so : 



1. Feed thee well ( that is, daily thrice) 
on the word of God. 

2. Breathe thee well (that is, daily 
thrice) thy desires unto God. 

3. Exercise thee well (that is, daily 
thrice) to do somebody good. 

These things do, and thou shalt soon be 
very strong. 

* * * 

No true Christian seeks to be mighty 
that he may lord it over others ; nay, but 
that he may use his power to be service- 
able by every good word and work. 

* * * 

No real Christian is little and unknown. 
He has so much, that he shares with all, 
and this makes him large and well known. 

* * * 

No Christian should put himself pur- 
posely forward, as though his power de- 
pended upon his prominence. Neither 
should he hide himself away as though a 
bashful humility were a virtue. But he 
should permit his opening nature to grasp 
the opening opportunities for service- 
ableness to the world through the church 
of his choice. 

* * * 

Hearer, dost thou say, as many have 
said in Boston, " Yes, I believe I'm a 
Christian ? " " What Church do you be- 
long to ? " " Oh, don't belong to any 
Church in particular ! ! " What would 
you think of a man who says, " Yes, I 
believe I'm an American ? " " What State 
do you live in ? " " Oh, I don't live in 
any State in particular. I was not born 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



449 



in any State, and I was not naturalized in 
any State, and I don't belong to any 
State; but I just hover around the 
border of whatever State happens, at the 
time, to interest me most." What would 
you call such a nondescript as that ? 
You would call him a border-tramp, and, 
as he had no visible means of subsistence, 
you would naturally distrust him. Thus 
it is with many in regard to Church re- 
lation. They keep going around every- 
where, and are useful nowhere. They 
have no character to trust in and no field 
to work in — all because they run every- 
where and settle nowhere. Such ecclesi- 
astical gipsies sometimes are very shy 
about confessing Christ, and like to shirk 
the responsibility of His cause. There 
were some such in the days of Jesus, and 
he said of them, " Whosoever shall deny 
me before men, him will I also deny 
before my Father which is in Heaven." 
(Matt, x: 33.) Unchurched brother, settle 
down ; give thy wondering over. Join 
some Church. If thou say, " Which ? " I 
reply, " This Temple." Here God is graci- 
ously pleased to display His power, and 
no doubt here would bless and re-bless thy 
precious soul. " They that be planted in 
the house of the Lord shall nourish in 
the courts of our God." 

* * * 

Affairs seem gloomy to the person who 
looks through smoked spectacles. There 
is but little weight to be attached to the 
opinion of people who prate about Gospel 
propriety and righteousness, and who, at 
the same time, take their coloring from 
mere social and secular usages. Human 
nature is bad — radically bad — and he 
who looks at advanced righteousness from 



the human standpoint will think it ad- 
vanced impertinence. The only way to 
see spiritual truth is through personal 
spiritualization. "For the natural man 
receiveth not the things of the spirit of 
God, for they are foolishness unto him, 
and he cannot know them, because they 
are spiritually (judged) discerned." 
(I. Cor., ii: 14.) 

* * * 

The true Christian has this comfort, — 
that the things for which he is despised 
are about the only things that will stand 
when the worlds are on fire, and shall 
shine all the brighter in the universal 
flame. 

* * * 

One indispensable excellency about the 
Temple converts is, that, as a rule, they 
stay converted. Many of them are doing 
splendid work in distant cities. And 
many of those who remain in Boston are 
among the best Christian workers in the 
city. True teaching in fundamentals and 
proper practice in essentials bring about 
these most beautiful results. 

* * * 

Eoentgen, of Wurtzburg, has discovered 
rays that pass through human flesh and 
reveal the skeleton on which the flesh has 
grown. But the eye of God passes through 
skeleton and all, and gazes on the hidden 
motives on which our inner selves are 
strung. " Search me, God, and know 
my heart ; try me, and know my thoughts. 
And see if there be any way of wicked- 
ness in me, and lead me in the way ever- 
lasting. (Psa. cxxxix : 23, 24.) 



450 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



The Temple salutatory benediction 
which we give to faithful servants of God, 
who appear on our platform, is as follows. 
Every one should commit it carefully to 
memory, so as to be able to pronounce it 
correctly in concert, when, with waving, 
snow-white banners it is given: 

" The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; 
The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and 

be gracious unto thee ; 
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, 

and give thee peace." Amen. 

* * * 

No noblest soul serves God from fear 
of hell or love of heaven. The truest 
soul serves from fascinating love of Him 
who is the loveliest Lover and mightiest 
Master. It serves Him with a passionate 
fondness that would rather die a thousand 
deaths than surrender and disgrace Him. 

* * * 

There are some people with whom it is 
bard work for even the good Christian to 
be charitable. Yet this is the great mark 
between a sham Christian and a real 
Christian. The real Christian is so full 
of love, that he loves his enemies, blesses 
them that curse him, and prays for them 
that despitefully use him. The sham 
Christian renders hate for hate, scorn for 
scorn, railing for railing, evil for evil. 
Dear ones, do not so ; but, like your Sav- 
iour, pray. "Father, forgive them, for they 
know not what they do." 

* * * 

The more God honors you, the more the 
world will disgrace you. It always has 
been so, and will be so, so long as there 
are bad people on the planet. But the 



slanders of the world are as nothing, com- 
pared with the honors of God. The hon- 
ors of God are infinite and eternal, while 
the slanders of men are as blasphemous 
breath, that passes away forever. 

>J< >}< >|< 

Some people seem very squeamish 
about the manner of saving others. If a 
man is drowning, it is of small importance 
whether you save him by this way or that. 
The main business is to save him. If a 
man is going to perdition, turn him ! — any 
way you can, but turn him. 

* * * 

There are folks who find fault with 
advertising services of salvation in a 
business-like way, just as if to secure 
salvation were not the chief business we 
have here, and as if to proclaim it, on 
every hand, by every means, were not the 
prime business of real life. This dry-as- 
dust idea of building churches, and then 
leaving their cold, stony steeples to do 
their advertising, is a device that suits 
only barren professors. 

>K * * 

If we succeed in doing our share in 
gathering the goldening harvests, we 
must put brain, heart and swiftness into 
our work. We must be driven by the 
power of God, at rapid speed — so great the 
work, so short the time. Brothers, up ! 
Sisters, on ! Garner some sheaves to-day. 

* * * 

It is said Phillips Brooks steered clear 
of Unitarianism on the one hand, and 
Romanism on the other. Should he have 
steered clear of them ? Aye ! that is the 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS, 



451 



question. Any system that seemingly di- 
vests the Son of God of His divinity, as 
Unitarianism does, and floods the Church 
with idolatry, as Romanism does, should 
not be steered clear of ; but the full, splen- 
did force of the artillery of truth should 
be brought to play upon them till their 
bastions are shattered to fragments by 
the columbiads of heaven. This, too, 
should be done in love and pity for man- 
kind. 

* * * 

The true preacher is not a trumpeter. 
He is a trumpet. His cry is, Lord, place 
me to thy loving lips and blow. Prepare, 
0, people, for the message of the Lord 
to-day. 

The really good Christians, when preach- 
ing is going on, keep praying and listen- 
ing, and listening and praying. The 
preacher takes fire from the flame in 
each listener's eye, and before the service 
is ended, they are all on the Transfiguring 
Mount, talking with Moses, Elias and 
Jesus. 

* * * 

It is a question, whether the outspoken 
sinner hinders the conversion of the 
world quite so much as the Church dilet- 
tante — the ecclesiastical esthete, who will 
do nothing himself, and permit no one 
else to do anything really worth doing. 
Such belong to that class at whom Jesus 
hurled His thunderbolts : "Ye serpents! 
ye generation of vipers ! How can ye 
escape the damnation of hell ? " The 
captious, frivolous trifler, however pre- 
tentious his claims, should have no in- 



fluence with honest, earnest, Christian 
workers. Forward, is our watchword! 
Onward, is our motto ! The city for J esus, 
our ambition; the country for Christ, our 
prayer; the world for God, our battle 
shout ! ! ! 

* * * 

The sin of listening to a lie is next to 
the sin of telling one. Be careful of 
what you hear, as well as what you say. 
If the lie told you is evidently intended 
to injure any one, stamp on it immedi- 
ately, as it flows from the lips of the liar, 
and kill it before it gets away. This 
is your duty to man before God. 

Summary slaughter of sin like this will 
bring upon you the wrath of the sinner. 
Care not for that ! The more the sinner 
rages against you, the more God will 
stand by and bless you. That's God's 
way. He never forsakes a soul doing its 
duty, but gives an increment of promised 
blessing that is enriching, sweetening, 
strengthening and surprising. 

Dare to be natural ; dare to be your- 
self; dare to be peculiar. But be sure 
that your peculiarities are not simply 
idiosyncratic. Be sure that your peculiari- 
ties arise, from your superiority of 
thought, your superiority of feeling, your 
superiority of action, your superiority of 
principle. Any one peculiar because of 
superiority in these things can afford to 
bear the brand of peculiarity, and rejoice 
in being one of the " peculiar people, 
zealous of good works." 



452 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SFRMOXS. 



There are some people who are great 
sticklers for the proprieties, as they call 
them, in worship. Those proprieties, ac- 
cording to their creed, are undeviating 
form, cold ceremony, unfractured con- 
ventionality, close adhesion to precedent. 
Any seeming new enterprise with life in 
it is to be tabooed, frowned down, as dis- 
graceful, unseemly, irreverent, and in- 
novative. Now, the truth is, that the 
things these finical folks call " the im- 
proprieties " are "the proprieties," and 
the things they call the " proprieties " are 
the improprieties." Dead, dooming for- 
malities should have no place in the 
Church of the living God. For the out- 
burst of joy, the swell of enthusiasm, the 
sobbing of a penintent, the exultant 
amen, the exuberant hallelujah, the fer- 
vent, unfettered prayer, the earnest, heart- 
felt speech, and the hearty responses of 
aroused worshippers are as natural and 
proper in the true Church of Christ as is 
the booming of the billows on the beach, 
or the rolling of the thunders in the sky. 
God Himself, recognizmg this principle of 
proper emotive expression, cries out to 
His Church, through Psalm xlvii : "0, clap 
your hands, all ye people, shout unto 
God with the voice of triumph; for the 
Lord most high is terrible. He is a great 
King over all the earth. He shall subdue 
the people under us and the nations under 
our feet. He shall choose our inheritance 
for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he 
loved." 

. * * * 

The most powerful Christian is the one 
who has the most perfect passion for his 
Master and His service, and commen- 



surate knowledge and wisdom to guide 
that passion. 

* * * 

The leading question with the leading 
Christian is not what people will think, 
say, or do in regard to his conduct, but 
what will God think of it, say of it, and 
do about it, in the day of Judgment. 

* >K * 

The reason we have so many exultant 
meetings in this Temple is because we 
have so many exulting Christians who 
have given themselves up to the enrap- 
turing pleasures of God. We want five 
or six thousand more to take Boston and 
lift the world. 

* * * 

As Boston has been historically noted 
for spreading secular liberty, it is now 
time for her to send spiritual liberty 
throughout the Commonwealth and world. 
This she will do as soon as the Word of 
God has freedom from the sad apostacies 
of the past and the deliquescent dilutions 
of the present. 

* * * 

The world moves onward as the Church 
moves upward. Political questions are 
becoming social questions ; social ques- 
tions are growing into religious problems ; 
religious problems are becoming the great 
propositions of human life. 

* * * 

Are you a thinker ? Turn yourself 
loose, and you will shake the world See, 
however, that you mistake not imagina- 
tion for thought. 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



453 



" My, business is serving God, but I 
work at shoe making to pay expenses," 
said a knight of the awl. That spirit 
carried into daily life will make any ordi- 
nary man extraordinary. 

* * * 

If the members of the Church had been 
as diligent, earnest and skilful in spread- 
ing the principles of salvation as the mem- 
bers of the world have been in promoting 
business transactions, the human race 
would have been saved long ago. The 
Saviour thought of this when he said, 
" The sons of this world are for their own 
generation wiser than the sons of Light." 
And, indeed, such is the foolishness of 
some of these so-called sons of Light, that 
if any one put forth as much skill, plan, 
thought, care and enterprise in promoting 
Christianity as other men put forth in 
promoting secularity, he is tabooed as a 
crank and branded as eccentric. The 
only concentric soul is the Christ-centered 
soul; the only eccentric soul is the world- 
centered soul. The soul centered on Christ 
God will lift to endless harmony in Crea- 
tion's Capital. The soul centered on the 
world shall fly oft" in endless gyrations of 
grief through the bottomless abysses of 
remediless remorse. 

* * * 

Every Christian should not only study 
to be cautious and kind, but also to be 
clear, compact and correct in speech, so 
as to be able properly and powerfully to 
represent his Master. This can be done by 
observing closely how good speakers 
speak and able writers write, but most 
masterfully by studying English gram- 



mar and composition under a competent 
teacher. 

* * * 

Let the Methodism of Boston beware, 
lest it become emasculated by those 
mongrel monstrosities, Arianism on the 
one hand, and Romanism on the other. 
We fear we see some signs of this. Peo- 
ple of clever intellects are sometimes 
slowest in accepting salvation. Why? 
Because they depend on clever intellects. 
But able intellects cannot save them j 
"with the heart man believeth unto right- 
eousness." A magnificent mind is a splen- 
did thing to have if you use it to enthrone, 
but a horrible thing to have if you use 
it to engulf. 

* * * 

Uncertainty of experience brings laxity 
of doctrine ; laxity of doctrine, looseness 
of morals ; looseness of morals, mental and 
moral diseases ; mental and moral diseases 
spiritual death ; spiritual death, eternal 
doom. Therefore, gain and keep a clear, 
clean Christian experience. 

* * * 

The church that saves the most souls is 
most graceful ; the church that saves 
the fewest, the most disgraceful. Saving 
sinners is what the church is for. If it 
does not do this, it has no reason for ex- 
istence. 

* * * 

Christians, like babes, are liable to 
creep, walk, grow and mature, and when 
a certain maturity is reached become (by 
the riches that church-life brings) in- 
different, luxurious and self-indulgent. 



454 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



Here decadence sets in ; this is followed 
by paralysis and death. Let us beware, 
lest this fatality should beset our lovely 
Methodism at any point. The specific 
prevention is giving all 3^011 are and have 
to God for everlasting vitalization. 

* * * 

The relation between science and salva- 
tion is complete. The salvation of Christ 
is the greatest scientific system ever for- 
mulated. This view is just beginning to 
come to the surface. It is one of the 
"hidden things" waiting to be revealed 
in the last times. There is no great 
fundamental law in the Bible but can be 
matched by a corresponding law in 
creation. The well here is deep, but it 
will pay you to let down your bucket. 
You will bring up crystal water in which 
shall be mirrored the full strength of the 
universe, waiting to do you and others 
service. 

* * * 

We do well to keep in mind that there 
is an Infinite Vitality all about us. This 
Vitality is without disease and knows no 
decay. It is the pervasive, life-giving love 
source of all worlds. It is wisest, strong- 
est, purest, best. You may call it Prov- 
idence or the Omnipotent, the Eternal 
or the Jehovah. I am content " to call it 
God " — in the beginning, God ; in the con- 
tinuance, God. and in the ending, God. It 
is "He," and He is the "I Am." filling 
with His presence all space, time and 
eternity. When we need health, we find it 
in Him ; when we want wealth, He is the 
supply ; when we want power He is the 
source ; when we need vitalization, He is 
the vitalizer. 



There is a great outflow ever going forth 
from the Infinite. It floods the whole 
earth and sea and sky with many trillioned 
life. He who would have power has but 
to open himself to this great inflow, sweep- 
ing ever in upon us. 

* * * 

Many forces shut the gates of re- 
ceptivity against the inflow of life, health 
and love. Stupidity, selfishness, sin of 
every shade, every error, every envious 
feeling, every impulse of wrath, every 
energy of hate, every emotion of revenge, 
every covetous desire, every licentious 
design, not only closes up the avenues of 
your nature to the great ocean of good 
seeking to come in and save you, but also 
opens up the approaches of your being to 
all the swells of evil that surge against 
you. Evil attracts evil, and good attracts 
good. Both are magnetic. If the pre- 
ponderating power in you is evil, you will 
attract evils from all points. If the pre- 
vailing power within you is good, 3^011 will 
draw good from all quarters. 

* * * 

You can, by the plan of salvation opeued 
up by Iinmanuel, come into union with the 
Almighty. You can be one with Him. 
You can be a part of Him, as you open up, 
like a bay toward the sea, your life toward 
the Infinite. Then all power is yours. 
You are one with Omnipotent and Eternal 
Power. Nothing can come to you but 
good. Every event will be a blessing so 
long as this oneness with the Infinite is 
sustained. Nor do you need to keep your- 
self — only submit to be kept; open up 
yourself to be filled. 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



455 



In the degree in which you are rilled 
with the divine immanence, in that degree 
shall you be useful. The " Water of Life, 
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the 
throne of God and of the Lamb." will now- 
through you. It will flow through you in 
exact proportion as you open up your life 
to it. It will leave within you what all 
seek and few find — peace and plenty, 
health and happiness. 

* * * 

The reason why oneness with God is so 
important to your welfare is clear. When 
you are one with Him you are a part of 
His essence. Not, of course, His personal 
essence, but of His inspirational essence. 
This makes you God's men. This culti- 
vates in you everything there is in God. 
You retain your personality. He retains 
His, but gives to you according to the de- 
gree you receive from Him the best in 
Him. This casts out cowardice and es- 
tablishes courage, crucifies fear and en- 
thrones confidence, slays hate and crowns 
love. 

* * * 

The Spirit of the Infinite is what we 
all need more than anything else. That 
Spirit is not afar off. He is near; He 
is waiting. When you open yourselves 
to Him, He will come in. He will stay in. 
He will work His gracious will through 
you. He will harmonize you. He will 
make you more harmonic than an orches- 
tra. He will make the most of you and 
do the best for you, and you will do the 
best for others. 

* * * 

When you are made one with the Great 
Power of the Universe, you must be pow- 



erful. You will not need to look here or 
go there for advice. You will have the 
power of wisdom in yourself. You will 
only have to follow the intuitions of your 
own soul. That soul will be right, be- 
cause God. the Spirit that dominates it. is 
right. You cannot do wrong when pro- 
pelled by Him. He will never impel you 
in the wrong way. His way is always 
right, and, because you are one with Him. 
your way will be always right. 

* * * 

The best experience you can have is 
to know the All-loving, All-living, All- 
working Spirit, that works through the 
worlds, and the laws, and the eternities, 
is working in and through you. to make 
you and others like Himself. When He 
lias made you one with Himself, you can 
let your soul speak to you. You can fol- 
low its intuitions and be safe — safe in busi- 
ness relations ; safe in social relations ; 
safe in all relations ; safe, because the 
Power of Power keeps you. 

* * * 

You lose just so much stock, as capital, 
every time you grumble. Character is the 
only capital you have. That ten thousand 
you have in the bank is not your capital. 
That is only donated you to use. But the 
capacities you have for coming into uni£y 
with your Father in the mangement of all 
that is magnificent in this universe, these 
are your capital. 

* H< ^ 

There is talk in plenty about the 
twentieth century religion, but those who 
see the fiftieth century religion will never 
behold anybody who has gone beyond the 



456 



SPARKS FROM OTHER SERMONS. 



" I in them and Thou in me " of our 
Saviour. Externalisms may and must 
change, but this Internalism is the same. 
There may be many-mannered manifesta- 
tions, but that invisible and indivisible 
Immanence we call God is the same in 
all times and worlds and the business of 
human beings will ever be to become so 
related to Him that His unimprovable per- 
fections may flow into them and make 
them perfect also. 

* * * 

A crimson line runs through all religions 
and all hearts, that culminates in the ever- 
flashing sun that shines through the crim- 
soned atmosphere of Calvary. That sun 
shines, through all calms and storms, for 
all mankind, and none have ever placed 
themselves under the power of its beams 
that have not felt the flooding grandeur of 
a new-born day. It is this sun-flood of 
life that gives the soul its truth, its tri- 
umph and its love. 

* '* * 

0, my America! how dear thou art to 
me. The treasures thou hast brought my 
life I can neither say nor sing. I call for 



men to match thy hills like cabinets filled 
with hidden jewels. I call for men to match 
thy mountains that tower toward the sky 
in breadth, strength and beauty. I call 
for men that, like thy prairies in ex- 
pansive fertility, are fit to feed the 
famished world. I ask for women that, 
like thy azure lakes, shall, in their purity, 
reflect the lustrous stars of truth. I ask 
for women who, like thy crystal rivers 
gliding grandly on, shall of salvation 
sweetly sing, till their song melts amia the 
melodies of the mother sea. 

* * * 

America, thou latest and thou best ! kind 
Providence had wisely hidden thee till 
God's people were preparing for thy virgin 
soil ; and while that people were getting 
ready, the veil of mystery was lifted from 
thy ample frame ; and when ready, they 
hither came to found Heaven's king- 
dom in thy breast. And now, that it 
has been founded so wisely, and so well, 
what is thy mission, oh, my America ? 
What but to cross the ocean, at either side, 
and evangelize the world ? This ! this ! 
0, my country, is to be thy greatest glory. 
Amen. 



The Saengerfest Sermons. 



By JAMES BOYD BRADY, Ph.D., D.D. 



i2mo white cloth and gold, 338 pages, $1.50. On sale at the Meth- 
odist Book Concern, 150 Fifth Avenue. New York. Sent to anv 
address, postpaid, on receipt of price. 

The following are some of the statements by eminent persons concerning 
these sermons : 

•■I have been reading -The Saengerfest Sermons' with great delight and 
profit. I wish I might have been one of the auditors, but the Sermons have so 
much vigorous, pungent life in them that the strong pesonality of the preacher 
seems scarcely wanting. I like to keep such a volume at my elbow for handy read- 
ing; I find it healthfully stimulating. I wish this timely volume could reach 
every part of the land." ^- BISHOP W. X. NINDE. 

••A valuable contribution to the religious literature of the day. I am delighted 
with the crisp, racy style.' A noble defense of the Sabbath. Terse, pointed, direct 
and telling.*' — PROFESSOR ELLENWOOD, New York University. 

"'The Saengerfest Sermons' show that Dr. Brady is an aggressive warrior. 
After every volley he moves up his guns, and when the smoke has lifted he is 
found in undisputed possession of the field."— REV. WILLIAM C. SNOD- 
GRASS, Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, Newark, N. J. 

•'•The subject is at present calling for the most earnest attention. It is vitally 
related to the highest interests of American society. The treatment is timely, 
unique and forcible. I am not surprised at the attention these Sermons won when 
delivered. They deserve a wide circulation."— REV. ENSIGN McCHESNEY, 
Ph. D., D. D., Pastor Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, New York. 

••A most superior contribution.'' — REV. E. H. CONKLIN, Paterson, N.J. 

•'The singular courage, manifest ability, and consecration to God and the 
Church displayed in - The Saengerfest Sermons' should give them a wide reading." 
REV. FERD. C. IGLEHART. D. D.. Pastor Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal 
Church, New York. 

•'A book of beautiful Sermons. They treat great themes in a way to interest 
and move the people. Thank God for such preaching!" — REV. E. H. STOKES? 
D. D., President of Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. 

" I read it with much satisfaction. Its eloquent and timely words will im- 
press all who read it." — REV. HENRY A. BUTTZ, President Drew Theological 
Seminary. 



THE SJENGERFEST SERMONS. 



" Bold, taking, timely, eloquent, thrilling, truthful, and equal to anything I 
know." — REV. AMZI L. SMITH. 

"The fearlessness of spirit, the comprehensiveness of grasp, and the intensity 
of feeling which characterize these Sermons constitute them a most valuable con- 
tribution to our current literature on the Sunday question." — REV. GEORGE P. 
ECKMAN, Pastor First Methodist Episcopal Church, Orange, N. J. 

" ' The Saengerfest Sermons ' have captured me, like the charge of a resist- 
less knight in battle." —REV. W. N. SEARLES, D. D.. Sing Sing, New York. 

" The book is learned, eloquent and forcible, the theme most timely, and 
the treatment bold, original and thoughtful." — REV. JESSE S. GILBERT. 

" Every Sermon glitters with splendid points and meets a practical demand. 
1 rejoice that they have been put in print." — REV. R. T. SAVIN. Pastor Central 
Methodist Episcopal Church, Detroit, Mich. 

"I am greatly pleased with the spirit and ability they display. The honesty 
of the speaker and his clean-cut principles are manifest in every sermon." — REV. 
CHARLES E. LITTLE. Pastor Lafayette Methodist Episcopal Church, Jersey 
City. 

"The Sermons are beautiful and strong." — REV. GEORGE H. WHITNEY, 
D. D., President Centenary Collegiate Institute. 

"This book of Sermons will stand as a monument of fidelity when it was 
needed." — REV. CORNELIUS CLARK. 

"To say that we enjoyed 'The Ssengerfest Sermons ' would not half express 
it. The book has been a feast and delight right through."— MRS. D. B. FINCH, 
Oakland, Cal. 

"Stirs me like a trumpet." — REV, T. H. LANDON, President Bordentown 
Military Institute. 

" I am as stirred by these ringing sentences as it is safe for me to be. I wish 
these Sermons could be read by every pastor and every Christian in the land." — 
W. H. BEACH, ESQ., Jersey City. 

"'The Ssengerfest Sermons' are of the utmost value, and have performed 
valiant service." — REV. H. M. McCRACKEN, D. D., LL. D., Chancellor New 
York University. 

"I have mentally ejaculated fifty eulogies on the thorough, majestic and sus- 
tained eloquence while reading those noble productions, the ' Saengerfest Ser- 
mons."— REV. ENOCH MEACHAM, Newark Conference. 

"Their perusal has stired me profoundly. The stately style, the eloquent 
phrases, the noble conception, the fearless exposure of sin in high places, cannot 
fail to awaken the lethargic." — REV. D. HALLERON, Pastor Simpson Meth- 
odist Esiscopal Church, Jersey City. 

" This is a remarkable collection of discourses. They are masterly. They are 
well worth reading. — Michigan Christian Advocate," 



THE SsENGERFEST SERMONS. 



" ' The Ssengerfest Sermons' are exceedingly interesting. They set forth most 
admirably the beauty and sacredness of the Sabbath." — REV. ALLEN O. 
BROWN, Pastor Methodist Episcopal Church, Washington, D. C. 

" These fifteen Sermons are original, attractive compositions, clear, forcible 
in expression, and discuss the claims of the Sabbath in a broad and convincing 
manner." — Central Christian Advocate, St Louis. 

" I would to God that some millionaire might scatter them to the four winds 
of heaven." — REV. W. H. CARSON, Newark Conference. 

"They bear the marks of their origin in their directness, fire and force." — 
REV. ELAM GARTON, Pastor Methodist Episcopal Church, Summit, N. J. 

"Am delighted. The Newark Conference has reason to be proud of them." — 
REV. HENRY J. HAYTER, Pastor Methodist Episcopal Church, Mount Her- 
roon, N. J. 

" They unfold Sabbath desecration and consecration in a striking manner. 
Fearlessness, vigor, ability and spirit are displayed in the work." — REV. JOSEPH 
W. DALLY, pastor Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, Jersey City. 

" 'The Ssengerfest Sermons ' are clear and strong." — REV. DR. BRICE. 

" No production on the subject equals their vital thought and grand elo- 
quence." — REV. J. L. HAYES, Newark Conference. 

"Matchless Sermons." — REV. W. H. RUSSELL, Newark Conference. 

" They are a courageous statement of the true doctrine of the Christian 
Sabbath." — REV. EDSON W. BURR, D. D., Pastor St. James Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, Elizabeth, N. J. 

"Eloquent, clear, and strikingly convincing." — REV. GEORGE HITCH- 
ENS, New Jersey Conference. 

" Without a peer in literature touching the Sabbath question. " — C. FRANK 
NETTLESHIP, ESQ., Newark, N. J. 

"Nothing that I have read surpasses them."— REV. W. R. KEIFER, 
Newark Conference. 

"Bristling with originality, full of thought, strong and convincing. " — REV. 
E. V. KING, Newark Conference. 

" They treat the Sabbath question with great eloquence and originality. " — 
Herald and Advocate. 

"I do not wonder at the crowds that attended them." — REV. J. C. JACK- 
SON, Newark Conference. 

" The great congregation, judging from the hearty responses from all parts 
of the house, were in thorough sympathy with every utterance." — REV. F. S. 
SIMMONS, Newark Conference. 



THE SJENGERFEST SERMONS. 



" They discuss grave American questions in a masterly manner. I regard the 
thought of the series as very strong and fine." — REV. WILLIAM EAKINS, 
D. D., Pastor St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, Jersey City, N. J. 

"A grand and heroic work nobly done." — REV. A. M. PALMER, Treasurer 
Newark Conference. 

" A manly defense of the Sabbath. We commend them as exceedingly sug- 
gestive." — California Christian Advocate. 

" It will repay ministers, if they will read these fifteen discourses as they fell 
red-hot from the lips of the preacher." — Zions Herald. 

"We have come to consider the ablest and most cogent treatise on the subject 
of Sabbath-keeping that there is in English or German in 4 The Saengerfest Ser- 
mons.' They give a bright light on a subject of perennial importance." — West- 
field Courier. 

"I congratulate the Church on the courage and equipment that enabled Dr. 
Brady to do so noble a thing."— REV. A. H. TUTTLE, D. D., Pastor Roseville 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

" Dr. Brady grasps his truths with great power, and presents them in a style 
of remarkable vigor." — PROFESSOR S. F. UPHAM, D. D., LL. D., Drew 
Theological Seminary. 

"I have read the volume again, and, in parts, again and again. To me it is 
an inspiration " — REV. T. A. FERNLEY, D. D., Philadelphia. 

"I have risen from their perusal rejoicing in the Gospel they proclaim." — 
REV. MERRITT HULBURD, D.D., Philadelphia. 

"Tremendous blows for the right and against the wrong." — REV. D. R. 
LOWRIE, D. D., Jersey City. 

" Unique and masterly discourses." — Ocean Grove Record. 

"They are strong, eloquent to the burning point, and full of popular illustra- 
tions." — The New York Independent. 

" ' The Saengerfest Sermons ' are fearless, outspoken and eloquent." — New 
York Christian at Work. 

" They form a consecutive argument the logic of which cannot be broken, and 
the burning eloquence of which cannot be resisted." — REV. DR. CRAIG, in 
New York Christian Advocate. 

" I would take all the good things that have been said about 'The Saengerfest 
Sermons' and multiply them together and raise them to the millionth power, and 
then feel that all was not expressed." — REV. MARTIN WELLS KNAPP, Gen- 
eral Manager and Editor of The Revivalist. 



ONE COPY REC'D 



JUL 141899 



